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THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 


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THE  ESSENCE  OF 
RELIGION 

BY 

BORDEN  PARKER  BOWNE 


Lontion 
CONSTABLE  &  CO.  Limited 

BOSTON    AND   NEW    YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
1911 


COPYRIGHT,    I9IO,    BY    KATE   M.    BOWNE 
ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 


BX 


PREFACE 


The  author  of  these  sermons  found  many  op- 
portunities to  "  minister  to  the  conscience  of 
men."  He  always  kept  a  warm  heart  for 
humanity,  and  was  absorbed  by  a  passion  for 
helping  others.  During  his  thirty-four  years 
of  service  as  a  Christian  teacher  he  was  con- 
stantly sought,  in  his  lecture-room  and  in  his 
home,  by  those  who  needed  him.  And  so  he 
bound  up  the  broken-hearted,  strengthened 
those  of  feeble  will,  and  gave  inspiration  and 
cheer  to  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him.  He 
showed  men  and  women,  as  never  before,  that 
the  essence  of  religion  lies  in  the  filial  spirit, 
in  the  desire  to  serve  and  please  God,  and  in 
the  daily  life  pervaded  and  sanctified  by  this 
spirit,  offered  up  in  service  and  worship. 

It  was  not  strange  that  he  was  urged  to 
preach,  and  also  to  publish  his  sermons  in 
book  form  so  that  they  might  have  a  wider 
hearing;  and  at  the  time  of  his  departure  for 


vi  PREFACE 

the  life  beyond  he  had  nearly  made  ready  this 
group  for  the  press. 

Some  of  these  sermons  have  been  printed 
elsewhere  —  "  Religion  and  Life"  appears  in 
"Modern  Sermons  by  World  Scholars";  "  The 
Church  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  "  was  one 
in  a  course  of  sermons  delivered  before  the 
Union  Theological  Seminary ;  "  The  Suprem- 
acy of  Christ "  was  preached  during  a  visit 
in  the  Orient,  to  crowds  of  eager  listeners; 
"  Prayer  "  was  written  to  strengthen  the  faith 
of  a  member  of  the  home  circle,  and  at  her 
request  given  to  a  larger  audience  one  memor- 
able Sabbath  at  Wellesley  College.  Through- 
out this  book  there  are  familiar  echoes  of 
private  and  public  speech. 

"  If,"  to  use  the  author's  own  words,  "  the 
great  end  of  religion  is  a  developed  soul,  a 
soul  with  a  deep  sense  of  God,  a  soul  in  which 
faith,  courage,  and  resolution  are  at  their 
highest,"  then  the  writer  of  these  sermons 
had  in  this  life  entered  into  the  fullest  realiza- 
tion of  all  he  taught  to  others. 

His  Wife. 

Boston,  November  7,  1910. 


CONTENTS 

I.   THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  1 

IL  RELIGION  AND  LIFE  23 

in.  THE  MYSTERY   OF   LIFE  AND    ITS   PRAC- 
TICAL SOLUTION  43 
IV.  RIGHTEOUSNESS     THE    ESSENCE    OF    RE- 
LIGION ''^ 
V.  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    97 
VI.  PRAYER                   *                                                  ^25 
VII.  SALVATION  AND  BELIEF                                  161 
VIIL  THE      CHRISTIAN      DOCTRINE      OF      THE 

WORLD  1^'' 

IX.  OBEDIENCE:   THE  TEST  OF  DISCIPLESHIP  209 

X.  OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  GOD  236 

XI.  LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  259 

XII.  THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  RESURRECTION       287 


I 

THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST 


THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 


THE    SUPREMACY    OF    CHRIST 

Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal 
life.  —  John  6 :  68. 

The  superficial  disciples  of  Jesus  were  begin- 
ning to  fall  away  when  these  words  were 
uttered.  He  had  begun  to  unfold  the  deeper 
truths  concerning  himself  and  his  mission, 
and  many  took  offense  at  them  and  walked 
no  more  with  him.  "  Then  said  Jesus  unto 
the  twelve,  Will  ye  also  go  away?  Simon 
Peter  answered  him.  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we 
go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life." 

In  these  words  Peter,  by  implication,  sets 
Jesus  on  high  as  the  supreme  Teacher,  with 
whom  no  one  else  is  to  be  compared  and 
whose  teachings  are  so  great  and  wlarthy  that 
they  are  rightly  called  words  of  eternal  life. 
And  this  conviction  of  the  apostle  is  more  and 


4  THE  ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

more  justified  by  the  religious  life  o£  the  race. 
The  religious  history  of  humanity  is  daily  be- 
coming better  known.  In  the  last  century  it 
was  possible  to  claim  that  religion  is  adventi- 
tious to  human  nature,  not  even  an  excrescence, 
but  rather  a  barnacle  generated  by  fraud  and 
ignorance.  This  is  the  case  no  longer.  As  our 
geographical  and  historical  knowledge  has  ex- 
tended, it  has  become  clear  that  man  is  natu- 
rally religious.  So  much  is  this  the  case  that 
unbelief  now  commonly  takes  the  form  of 
claiminof  that  all  reliofions  alike  are  the  natural 
outcome  of  that  religious  sentiment  which  is 
instinctive  in  human  nature ;  just  as  the  vari- 
ous art  products  of  the  race  in  all  their  forms 
are  to  be  traced  to  the  aesthetic  instinct  which 
is  founded  in  human  nature.  But  however 
this  may  be,  we  stand  to-day  in  the  face  of 
vast  religious  systems  of  which  our  fathers 
never  dreamed.  Christianity  has  to  confront 
great  historic  religions,  older  and  having  more 
adherents  than  itself.  The  Christian  mission- 
ary finds  himself  in  the  presence  of  old  and 
venerable  faiths,  with  their  bibles,  their  tern- 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  5 

pies,  and  their  supernatural  history.  Indeed, 
their  sacred  books  have  been  translated  in 
some  twenty  odd  volumes,  and  we  read  them 
in  our  own  tongue.  Christ,  then,  is  but  one 
of  many  religious  teachers. 

Along  with  this  growing  historical  know- 
ledge has  developed  a  still  more  wonderful 
knowledge  of  nature.  The  nature  upon  which 
the  thinker  of  to-day  looks  out  has  almost 
nothinof  in  common  with  nature  as  it  seemed 
to  men  in  the  apostles'  day.  Limits  have  van- 
ished in  both  space  and  time ;  and  instead  of 
the  simple  bodies  of  the  senses  we  have  a  won- 
derful mysterious  energy  on  which  all  things 
forever  depend  and  from  which  they  forever 
proceed.  We  have  a  threefold  infinitude  — 
infinitude  of  extension,  infinitude  of  duration, 
infinitude  of  power;  and  then,  brooding  im- 
penetrable over  all,  an  infinitude  of  mystery. 
But  none  of  these  things,  nor  all  of  them  to- 
gether, have  in  any  way  returned  an  answer 
to  Peter's  question.  Standing  in  the  face  of 
our  increased  knowledge  of  the  world  and  of 
man,  we  can  only  repeat  his  word :  "  Lord, 


6  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words 
of  eternal  life."  More  and  more  it  is  becom- 
ing apparent  that  for  knowledge  and  help 
and  hope  concerning  the  deepest  things  of 
God  and  life  and  destiny  we  must  depend  on 
Jesus  Christ  or  abandon  ourselves  to  apathy 
or  despair. 

Our  greatest  need  in  matters  of  religion  is 
to  know  how  to  think  about  God,  what  he  is 
and  what  he  means.  Our  next  greatest  need 
is  to  know  how  to  think  about  ourselves,  our 
life  and  destiny.  This  unseen  being  in  whom 
more  or  less  blindly  all  men  believe,  what  is 
he  ?  Is  he  perhaps  some  metaphysical  perfection 
to  which  right  and  wrong  are  indifferent  ?  And 
if  he  be  a  moral  being,  what  is  his  attitude 
toward  us  ?  Does  he  forgive  sin  or  hear  prayer? 
Indeed,  does  he  care  for  us  at  all ;  or  are  we 
rather  forever  beneath  his  notice  ?  And  this 
life  of  ours  —  does  it  mean  anything  or  tend 
to  anything  ?  Is  there  any  outcome  to  human 
history;  or  is  it  only  an  uncared-for  product 
of  eternal  laws  which  roll  on  forever  and  with 
equal  indifference  to  life  and  death  ?  These 


THE  SUPREMACY   OF  CHRIST  7 

are  the  supreme  questions  to  which  the  earnest 
minds  of  the  race  have  ever  been  seeking  an 
answer ;  and  the  only  answer  which  com- 
mands the  assent  of  the  enlightened  mind, 
heart  and  conscience  is  the  answer  given  by 
Jesus  Christ.  He  tells  us  of  a  Father  and  Al- 
mighty Friend  upon  the  throne.  Our  God  is 
not  an  absentee  apart  from  the  world  in  self- 
enjoyment,  but  he  is  present  in  the  world,  in 
life,  in  conscience  and  history,  carrying  on  a 
great  moral  campaign  for  the  conquest  and 
training:  of  the  human  will  and  its  establishment 
in  righteousness.  We  are  now  God's  children, 
and  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be ; 
but  we  know  that  when  God's  will  concerning 
us  has  been  wrought  out,  we  shall  be  like  him 
and  shall  see  him  as  he  is.  Meanwhile  all 
good  things  are  safe  in  the  plan  and  power  of 
God,  and  are  moving  irresistibly  Godward, 
for  nothing  can  thwart  God's  righteousness 
and  loving:  will.  Such  is  the  answer  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  our  eager  questioning  con- 
cerning God  and  life  and  destiny ;  and  this 
answer  in  its  clearness  and  power  to  produce 


8  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

conviction  and  control  life  we  owe  entirely  to 
him. 

By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  God  has  no- 
where else  revealed  himself  to  men ;  but  I 
mean  that  all  other  revelations  are  obscure, 
uncertain,  and  incomplete  in  comparison  with 
the  revelation  by  and  in  Jesus  Christ.  In  the 
confusion  and  groping  of  the  childhood  of  the 
race  they  served  a  temporary  purpose  and  were 
better  than  nothing.  They  furnished  a  bond  of 
union  for  scattered  and  warring  tribes.  They 
kept  alive  a  sense  of  the  invisible,  and  gave 
to  human  relations  and  duties  a  measure  of 
divine  sanction.  To  be  sure,  they  often  erred 
and  strayed  most  grievously  from  the  way, 
and  never  attained  to  any  clear  and  compre- 
hensive moral  and  spiritual  insight ;  but  in 
the  main  we  can  see  that  they  performed  a 
beneficent  function  in  the  life  of  men.  So 
much  we  can  see  in  the  light  of  Christian 
thought,  but  we  can  see  it  only  in  the  light  of 
Christian  thought.  If  we  may  believe  in  God 
as  Jesus  has  revealed  him,  we  can  readily  be- 
lieve that  he  has  never  left  himself  without 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  9 

a  witness  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  that  he 
has  used  these  bUnd  gropings  and  blurred  ap- 
prehensions of  men  as  means  of  reaching  him 
while  the  way  was  preparing  for  the  perfect 
revelation  of  himself  in  his  Son.  But  if  we 
must  believe  that  Jesus  was  mistaken,  that 
he  did  not  reveal  the  Father,  then  the  sure 
result  of  the  loss  of  this  hio^her  faith  will  be 
the  loss  of  all  lower  forms  by  those  who  have 
developed  far  enough  to  understand  the 
higher.  We  can  go  back  to  atheism  or  to  ag- 
nosticism, but  we  cannot  go  back  to  Moham- 
medanism, Buddhism,  or  Hinduism  or  Con- 
fucianism, or  to  any  of  the  myriad  forms  of 
polytheism  and  superstition.  In  the  times  of 
human  ignorance  and  childhood  these  systems 
may  have  served  a  temporary  purpose  in  the 
divine  education  of  the  race ;  but  in  the  devel- 
opment of  intelligence  and  conscience  a  point 
is  reached  where  we  must  go  beyond  them  or 
abandon  them  altogether.  One  who  has  learned 
in  the  school  of  Christ  can  accept  no  other 
conception  of  God  than  that  which  Christ  re- 
vealed. The  Epicurean  gods,  the  immoral  gods, 


10  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

the  vindictive  gods  of  the  heathen  pantheon, 
stand  hopelessly  condemned  and  repudiated 
by  the  consciousness  of  modern  civilization. 
They  are  equally  condemned  by  modern  in- 
telliofence.  A  mind  which  has  been  formed 
by  the  study  of  nature  and  the  world  of  law 
cannot  tolerate  the  superstitions  of  these  de- 
caying systems.  They  are  doomed  in  any  case. 
They  are  not  able  to  think  any  worthy  thought 
of  God  or  of  man.  They  furnish  no  hope  and 
no  inspiration.  Hence,  for  us,  the  alternative 
is  Jesus  Christ  or  nothing.  If  he  was  mis- 
taken, then  all  lower  religious  effort  was  all 
the  more  mistaken;  and  there  is  nothing  to 
do  but  to  look  upon  the  religious  history  of 
the  race  as  a  phase  of  the  total  cosmic  process 
without  any  abiding  significance,  somewhat 
tragic  indeed,  when  viewed  from  the  human 
standpoint,  but  after  all  only  a  transient  phase 
of  a  transient  humanity.  It  is  only  as  we  hold 
the  higher  faith  of  Christianity  that  we  can 
find  anything  divine  in  lower  faiths. 

The   supremacy  of  Jesus  further  appears 
when  we  turn  to  the  study  of  nature  to  get  an 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  11 

answer  to  the  supreme  questions  concerning 
God  and  life  and  destiny.  Here,  also,  Jesus 
alone  has  words  of  eternal  life.  We  get  a  great 
deal  of  valuable  information  from  this  study, 
valuable  for  practice,  valuable  for  enlarging 
and  correcting  our  thoughts  ;  but  to  those  su- 
preme questions  we  get  no  certain  answer,  and 
for  life  itself  we  get  no  supreme  inspiration. 

The  study  of  nature  has  for  the  most  part 
been  carried  on  by  Christian  men,  and  the  in- 
terpretation of  nature  has  taken  place  under 
the  influence  of  Christian  ideas.  These  have 
steadied  and  directed  our  thought  to  an  unsus- 
pected extent.  The  fundamental  doctrine  of 
monotheism  was  reached  less  by  speculative 
reflection  than  by  the  positive  teaching  of  the 
church.  This  made  it  a  matter  of  course.  In 
particular  the  moral  interpretation  of  nature 
has  been  thus  influenced.  In  the  sure  and  set- 
tled conviction  of  a  God  of  goodness,  we  have 
not  been  distressed  or  even  disturbed  at  the 
sinister  aspects  of  nature ;  and  thus  we  have 
failed  to  get  the  impression  which  a  purely  in- 
ductive study  of  nature  would  make  upon  us. 


12  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

And  the  conviction  has  been  very  general  that 
God's  goodness  and  righteousness  are  very 
clearly  and  unambiguously  revealed  in  the 
natural  world.  But  this  conviction  has  received 
many  a  rude  shock  in  our  day.  To  begin  with, 
the  theistic  conception  itself  is  seen  to  involve 
mysteries  so  impenetrable  that  thought  gropes 
and  staggers  in  the  attempt  to  grasp  it.  Then 
the  doing  away  with  all  spatial  and  temporal 
limits  in  the  cosmic  process  leaves  us  almost 
without  the  conditions  of  thinking.  And  when 
we  study  the  phases  and  products  of  this  pro- 
cess, we  find  ourselves  equally  unable  to  com- 
prehend the  power  and  the  purpose  which  un- 
derlie the  whole.  There  is  very  little  that  we 
should  have  expected  and  a  great  deal  that  we 
should  not  have  expected.  And  in  the  organic 
world  we  find  the  same  unintelligibility,  and, 
in  addition,  the  positive  fact  of  pain  and  death. 
The  whole  creation  groans  and  travails  together 
in  pain.  And  in  the  midst  of  this  unintelligible 
scene,  man,  a  helpless  and  transitory  creature, 
finds  himself  placed,  a  momentary  inhabitant 
of  a  mere  speck  in  the  boundless  material  sys- 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  13 

tern,  and  subject  to  the  same  laws  as  rule  in  all 
organic  life, — birth,  pain,  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, all  ended  by  speedy  death.  This  is  the 
picture  which  nature  alone  presents.  It  knows 
nothing  of  immortality.  The  recurrent  spring, 
the  chrysalis  and  the  butterfly,  and  similar 
images,  serve  well  enough  to  express  a  faith 
already  possessed,  but  they  are  exasperating 
when  adduced  as  arguments.  Both  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  species  perish.  The  immortality 
of  a  type  is  a  rather  shadowy  thing  at  best,  and 
such  as  it  is,  it  is  only  a  fiction.  Sooner  or 
later,  individuals  and  types  alike  pass.  Nature 
knows  nothing  of  immortality  of  any  sort,  and 
it  is  highly  ambiguous  on  the  fundamental 
doctrine  of  the  divine  goodness.  So  much  so 
that  those  who  have  broken  away  from  Chris- 
tianity in  our  time  have  very  largely  fallen 
a  prey  to  pessimism  and  despair.  So  far,  so 
infinitely  far,  is  nature  from  having  words  of 
eternal  life.  And  the  great  and  only  sufficient 
barrier  to  this  way  of  thinking  is  Jesus  Christ. 
He  is  manifestly  the  Light  of  the  world,  the 
Desire  of  nations,  the  Hope  of  humanity. 


14  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

More  and  more  the  thought  and  hope  of  the 
modern  world  centre  about  Jesus  Christ.  Of 
the  many  religious  masters  of  the  race,  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  only  one  that  lives  as  a  present 
personal  power  and  inspiration.  Others  have 
left  systems  and  disciples  behind  them,  but  the 
masters  themselves  are  dead.  Their  power  was 
in  their  words,  not  in  themselves.  Just  the  op- 
posite is  the  case  with  Jesus  Christ.  His  power 
is  in  himself.  What  he  was  —  not  what  he 
said  —  is  what  influences  men.  And  by  simply 
standing  in  the  midst  of  history  before  the 
eyes  of  men,  he  has  become  the  Revealer  and 
Searcher  of  hearts,  the  Judge  of  the  world, 
the  Rebuker  of  its  iniquity,  the  Inspirer  of  its 
good,  its  great  Leader  against  evil,  and  the 
Hope  and  Head  of  all  who  look  for  the  re- 
demption of  humanity.  Anna  in  the  temple 
spoke  of  the  child  Jesus  to  all  those  who  were 
looking  for  the  redemption  of  Jerusalem.  The 
course  of  history  bids  all  who  hope  for  a  re- 
deemed world  to  look  for  him. 

In  the  biblical  world  Jesus  Christ  has  be- 
come the  centre  and  completion  of  revelation. 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  15 

He  is  the  supreme  revealer  and  revelation,  and 
the  only  final  authority.  Long  since  he  be- 
came the  proof  of  the  Bible,  so  that  now  our 
main  concern  for  the  Bible  depends  on  its  re- 
lation to  him.  So  long  as  we  have  him,  we 
have  all  that  is  important  in  revelation ;  and 
if  he  were  taken  away,  it  would  matter  little 
what  else  might  be  left.  One  good  result  of 
modern  biblical  study  has  been  to  fix  the 
attention  of  the  Christian  world  on  Christ 
himself  rather  than  on  the  Bible,  and  to 
show,  moreover,  that  Christ  is  the  centre  of 
the  Christian  faith.  Whatever  criticism  has 
shaken,  it  has  only  brought  out  more  fully 
the  testimony  of  history  to  Jesus  Christ.  And 
any  one  whose  faith  may  have  been  disturbed 
concerning  the  biblical  literature  should  find 
relief  in  this  thought,  that  Jesus  Christ  more 
and  more  appears  the  unshakable  corner-stone 
against  which  no  gates  of  hell  shall  ever  pre- 
vail. 

Again,  Jesus  Christ  has  become  the  chief 
inspiration  and  support  of  the  conscience  of 
the  modern  world.  It  is  a  great  warfare  which 


16  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

is  waging  in  the  upbuilding  of  men.  A  vast 
body  of  forces  and  impulses  tend  to  drag  men 
downward.  Men  are  of  the  earth  by  one  side 
of  their  nature ;  and  the  earth  draws  and 
claims  its  own.  Hence  the  sense-life  proves  so 
attractive.  And  many  are  found  who  persist- 
ently claim  that  the  sense-life  is  all.  On  this 
plane  selfishness  and  animalism  soon  develop ; 
and  the  strong  begin  to  think  meanly  of  the 
weak  and  to  oppress  the  weak ;  and  caste  is 
born  ;  and  oppression  and  tyranny  go  hand  in 
hand  with  animalism  for  the  destruction  of 
humanity.  This  tendency  has  been  manifold 
in  manifestation,  but  it  is  ever  the  same  in 
spirit,  and  it  is  far  enough  from  being  finally 
cast  out.  And  the  most  powerful  agent  against 
it  is  the  life  and  words  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
has  borne  the  most  effective  testimony  to  the 
supreme  worth  of  the  individual  man,  and 
delivered  the  most  effective  rebuke  to  all  at- 
tempts to  degrade  him.  Nowadays  whenever 
any  one  wishes  to  make  a  great  and  solemn 
appeal  on  behalf  of  humanity,  there  is  almost 
sure  to  be  some  implicit  reference  to  Jesus 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  17 

Christ.  And  the  most  effective  rebuke  of  the 
world's  selfishness,  the  most  searching-  illumi- 
nation of  its  evil,  are  found  in  simply  placing 
them  face  to  face  with  the  mind  of  Christ. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  way  of  arous- 
ing repentance  and  hope  in  the  sinful  mind  so 
effective  as  to  bring  it  face  to  face  with  Christ. 
He  is  the  apostle  of  humanity.  He  knows  what 
is  in  man.  He  identifies  himself  with  all  its 
members.  The  good  or  evil  done  to  the  least 
of  his  brethren  is  done  to  him  ;  and  the  cup 
of  cold  water  given  in  the  name  of  a  disciple 
does  not  pass  unnoticed.  Against  all  worldli- 
ness,  and  selfishness,  and  oppression,  the  great 
barrier  and  the  great  condemnation  are  found 
in  the  teaching  and  authority  and  personality 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

Again,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  great  barrier 
against  pessimism  and  despair.  I  have  before 
spoken  of  the  depressing  aspects  of  nature, 
and  the  depression  pursues  us  into  our  theory 
of  man  himself.  What  with  the  influence  of 
heredity  and  environment,  a  great  many  are 
found  who  deny,  and  many  more  who  doubt. 


18  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

the  possibility  of  reforming  men  or  making 
much  of  them  in  any  way.  Here  again  Jesus 
is  the  great  optimist  and  has  a  gospel  of  hope 
for  all  who  will  receive  it.  The  weary  and 
heavy-laden  without  exception  are  bidden  to 
come  to  him.  The  resources  of  God  are  infi- 
nite, and  whosoever  will  may  take  of  the 
water  of  life.  There  is  a  divine  heredity  as 
well  as  a  human ;  and  the  fatherhood  of  God 
can  set  right  all  aberrations  arising  from  hu- 
man fatherhood.  The  disciple  of  Buddha  looks 
forward  to  unknown  ages  of  entanglement 
with  an  evil  past ;  but  Jesus  Christ  undertakes 
to  free  men  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 
He  alone  can  speak  the  word  of  deathless  hope 
and  almighty  power  to  the  morally  lame  and 
deaf  and  dumb  and  blind  of  our  race. 

Finally,  we  find  the  same  supremacy  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  matter  of  social  regenera- 
tion. From  the  standpoint  of  experience  it  is 
very  far  from  clear  what  the  future  of  the 
race  will  be.  Malthus  portrayed  a  crowded 
earth  with  hunsrer  and  famine  as  the  end.  The 
struggle  for  existence  readily  lends  evil  dreams. 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  19 

The  physicists  now  and  then  tell  us  the  uni- 
verse itself  is  growing  effete  and  must  yet  wear 
out.  Certainly,  it  is  far  from  sure  that  we  are 
not  using  up  the  physical  capital  on  which 
civilization  depends.  But  apart  from  these 
dismal  predictions  and  reflections,  we  find 
many  forces  at  work  in  civilization  which  would 
suffice  for  its  destruction  if  left  to  themselves. 
The  wisest  statesman  can  see  but  a  little  way, 
and  his  power  is  far  less  even  than  his  know- 
ledge. Humanity  is  driving  stormily  on  its 
perilous  way,  and  no  man  knows  from  history 
or  observation  what  the  end  will  be.  If  we 
really  think  about  the  subject,  the  only  reas- 
suring thing  is  the  optimistic  teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ  based  on  his  revelation  of  God.  If  God 
be  indeed  such  as  Jesus  reported,  if  he  be  our 
God  and  Father,  if  his  name  is  Love,  if  he 
has  made  man  for  immortal  Hfe  and  blessed- 
ness with  himself,  then  of  course  all  must  be 
right  with  the  world,  and  the  end  must  be  di- 
vine. But  on  any  other  view,  the  only  preserv- 
ative against  deep  anxiety,  if  not  despair,  is 
simply  not  to  think.  The  God  and  Father  of  our 


20  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

Lord  Jesus  Christ  can  be  trusted  even  when 
we  do  not  understand  him  ;  but  if  we  seek  to 
know  God  apart  from  his  Son,  we  are  at  the 
besrinnino-  of  confusion  and  sorrow. 

It  is  a  o;rim  scene  which  the  historical 
procession  of  humanity  presents — the  many 
races,  their  alienation,  their  wars  and  mu- 
tual slaughter,  the  failure  to  reach  anything 
in  most  cases,  and  the  scanty  and  insecure  re- 
sult in  all.  The  o^reat  mass  of  individuals  have 
not  had  the  conditions  of  a  properly  human 
existence —  buried  in  ignorance,  pursued  by 
disease,  persecuted  by  pain,  and  all  the  while, 
like  some  tremendous  Niagara,  pouring  over 
into  the  abyss  of  death  and  darkness.  We  are 
fascinated  and  almost  paralyzed  by  the  awful 
spectacle.  What  does  it  all  mean  —  these  fear- 
ful methods,  this  silence  and  indifference,  this 
apparent  traversing  of  all  our  ideas  of  justice 
and  mercy?  Is  there  any  justifying  outcome? 
Jesus  Christ  bids  us  trust  God  and  fear  not. 
Love  and  wisdom  rule,  and  we  shall  yet  see  it 
when  the  day  breaks  and  the  shadows  flee 
away.  Others  have  echoed  his  words,  but  his 


THE  SUPREMACY  OF  CHRIST  21 

is   the  only  original  voice  which  commands 
our  conviction  and  establishes  our  faith. 

Now  that  these  things  are  so,  I  am  pro- 
foundly convinced.  Jesus,  instead  of  becoming 
less  and  less  necessary  to  humanity,  is  more 
and  more  necessary.  Our  problems  are  larger, 
more  pressing,  more  insistent  to-day  than  ever 
before.  Past  times  were  in  comparison  times 
of  childhood.  And  the  solution  of  our  prob- 
lems is  hopeless  without  the  light  thrown 
upon  them  by  Jesus  Christ.  The  question 
which  Peter  asked  in  his  first  dim  insight  into 
the  supremacy  of  his  Lord,  the  disciple  of  to- 
day repeats  with  all  the  added  emphasis  of 
nearly  two  thousand  years  of  history :  "  Lord, 
to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words 
of  eternal  life." 


II 

RELIGION  AND  LIFE 


II 


RELIGION    AND    LIFE 


I  beseech  you  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that 
ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God, 
■which  is  your  reasonable  service.  —  Romans  12 :  1. 

In  the  preceding  part  of  the  epistle  Paul 
has  unfolded  the  divine  plan  for  the  salvation 
of  men ;  he  now  proceeds  to  sundry  practical 
deductions.  And  he  begins  with  an  exhortation 
based  upon  the  tender  compassions  of  God 
■which  he  has  been  describing,  and  urges  his 
readers  to  offer  themselves  in  living  sacrifice 
to  God.  But  a  word  of  explanation  is  needed 
to  bring  out  the  full  force  of  the  passage. 

The  phrase  "  reasonable  service  "  but  poorly 
translates  Paul's  meaning.  We  commonly  take 
it  to  signify  a  duty  which  it  is  fitting  we 
should  recognize.  It  is  meet  and  right  and 
hence  our  bounden  duty.  Our  "reasonable 
service,"  then,  is  a  duty  toward  God  which 
we  ought  to  perform.    Of  course,  every  such 


26  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

duty  is  a  "  reasonable  service  "  in  this  sense, 
but  still  this  is  not  what  Paul  meant  or  said. 
The  word  translated  service  properly  means 
religious  worship,  as  indeed  the  word  service 
often  does  in  English.  We  say,  service  will  be 
held,  meaning  a  meeting  for  worship.  The 
word  translated  service  here  is  latreia,  the 
word  which  appears  in  idolatry,  the  worship 
of  idols ;  Mariolatry,  the  worship  of  Mary ; 
bibliolatry,  the  worship  of  a  book,  etc.  And 
the  reasonable  does  not  mean  here  something 
right  or  fitting,  but  rational  or  spiritual.  Paul 
was  writing  to  persons  many  of  whom  were 
familiar  with  the  Jewish  ritual,  and  all  of 
whom  were  living;  in  the  midst  of  idolatrous 
rites  and  practices,  and  he  wished  to  show  the 
superiority  of  the  Christian  life  and  worship 
by  contrast  with  these  other  forms.  The  other 
sacrifices,  whether  Jewish  or  heathen,  he  re- 
garded as  dead,  irrational,  unspiritual.  The 
Christian  sacrifices  should  be  living,  rational, 
spiritual.  The  Jews  and  the  heathen  offered 
up  the  bodies  of  slain  animals ;  the  Christian 
should  offer  up  himself  in  living  sacrifice  in 


RELIGION  AND  LIFE  27 

all  the  contents  and  details  of  his  life.  The 
body  here  stands  for  the  entire  personality. 
It  is  a  convenient  and  picturable  putting  of 
the  matter,  and  also  serves  to  show  that  the 
details  even  of  the  physical  life  are  to  be  in- 
cluded in  our  religrion.  The  idea  here  is  the 
same  as  when  Paul  urges  us,  whatsoever  we 
do,  whether  we  eat  or  drink,  to  do  all  to  the 
glory  of  God.  And  this  offering  up  of  life  as  a 
whole  in  living  sacrifice  to  God  was  to  be  their 
rational  and  spiritual  worship,  in  distinction 
from  the  dead,  irrational,  unspiritual  worship 
of  the  non-Christian  world. 

Now  we  see  the  apostle's  thought.  He  would 
have  us  conceive  of  the  world  as  a  temple  in 
which  men  perpetually  offer  up  the  dally  life 
as  their  spiritual  worship  of  God.  The  life 
itself  is  to  be  the  material  of  religion  ;  and 
when  it  is  offered  up  in  the  filial  spirit  of  lov- 
ing obedience,  it  is  our  religion,  our  worship. 
Dead  sacrifices,  or  the  sacrifice  of  dead  things, 
cannot  please  the  living  and  holy  God ;  but 
when  life  itself  is  offered  up  in  continual  con- 
secration and  devotion,  it  becomes  that  true 


28  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

worship  of  the  spirit,  in  the  spirit,  which  alone 
is  well  pleasing  unto  him. 

This  exposition  gives  us  our  subject :  The 
religious  value  of  daily  life.  And  by  the  daily 
life  I  mean  this  complex  round  of  labor  and 
rest,  of  waking  and  sleeping,  of  eating  and 
drinking,  of  family  and  social  interests,  and 
all  the  multitudinous  activities  which  spring 
out  of  human  nature  and  which  are  necessary 
to  keep  the  world  a-going.  What  is  the  reli- 
gious value  of  these  things,  and  what  is  their 
relation  to  religion  ?  The  text  has  already  told 
us.  They  are  to  be  done  to  the  glory  of  God 
by  being  subordinated  to  his  will ;  and  when 
they  are  thus  offered  up  in  living  sacrifice  to 
God,  they  become  our  religion,  our  spiritual 
worship. 

On  this  general  subject  of  the  relation  of 
life  to  reliofion  there  are  three  views  more  or 
less  explicitly  recognized  in  religious  thought 
—  the  worldly  view,  the  ascetic  view,  the 
Christian  view. 

The  peculiarity  of  the  worldly  view  is  that 
it  stops  with  the  daily  life  and  fails  to  relate 


RELIGION  AND  LIFE  29 

it  to  any  divine  meaning  or  plan.  It  discerns 
no  spiritual  life  to  which  the  daily  round 
should  minister,  no  supreme  good  which  glori- 
fies that  round  by  relating  it  to  God's  will  and 
purpose.  Thus  life  itself  soon  becomes  de- 
graded, and  sinks  to  its  physical  dimensions. 
The  Gentile  question,  what  shall  we  eat,  drink, 
and  wear,  becomes  the  great  if  not  the  only 
question.  Then  life  becomes  mainly  an  affair 
of  eating,  drinking,  and  dressing,  varying  of 
course  in  grossness  or  refinement  in  different 
classes  of  society,  but  essentially  the  same  in 
all.  The  life  of  animalism  may  be  found  every- 
where in  society,  differing  only  in  the  form  of 
its  manifestation,  but  not  in  its  principle.  And 
this  life  quickly  develops  into  the  lust  of 
the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of 
Hfe. 

Thus  a  blindness  to  the  higher  goods  of 
life  is  developed  or  made  chronic,  and  a  sad 
inversion  of  right  judgment  is  reached.  In  this 
view  there  is  no  sense  of  real  values.  Things 
which  minister  to  animal  sensation  or  to  per- 
sonal vanity  are  made  the  supreme  goods  of 


30  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

life.  Men  lose  themselves  in  their  accidents, 
in  things  which  at  the  utmost  have  only  a 
temporary  convenience,  without  any  signifi- 
cance whatever  for  manhood  here  or  hereafter. 
Men  forget  themselves,  their  real  selves,  en- 
tirely, and  pride  themselves  on  the  most  ludi- 
crous externalities.  They  confuse  themselves 
with  their  surroundings,  and  judge  themselves, 
and  are  judged  by  others,  according  to  their 
surroundings.  Oftentimes  the  person  himself 
disappears  entirely  from  our  thought  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  surroundings.  He  be- 
comes only  a  form  for  the  exhibition  of  cloth- 
ing or  a  tag  or  label  for  property.  The  way 
in  which  this  illusion  haunts  us  is  at  once 
pathetic  and  grotesque. 

The  man  f orgrets  himself  and  others  also  for- 
get  him;  only  the  property  is  thought  of.  If  we 
should  ask  how  much  some  one  is  worth,  only 
money  values  would  be  considered.  What  the 
man  might  be  worth  to  God  or  men,  what 
he  counts  for  in  humanity's  struggle,  to  what 
spiritual  values  he  has  attained  —  these  things 
are  never  dreamed  of.  And  the  same  thing 


RELIGION  AND  LIFE  31 

continues  when  the  man  dies.  Here,  again,  our 
attention  is  fixed  on  the  property.  How  much 
did  he  leave?  What  will  the  heirs  do  with  it? 
These  and  similar  questions  occupy  our  minds, 
with  not  a  single  thought  of  the  soul  that  has 
left  it  all  and  gone  out  on  its  mysterious  way 
to  a  world  where  only  real  values  are  recog- 
nized. 

One  with  an  eye  for  real  values  can  discern 
many  scarecrows  like  that  of  which  Hawthorne 
somewhere  writes,  parading  in  unconscious 
masquerade  under  the  solemn  stars  and  before 
the  watching  angels  ;  small  minds  and  smaller 
hearts  disguised  by  showy  circumstances,  and 
hideous  mental  and  spiritual  squalor  hidden 
in  fine  surroundings. 

Such  is  the  worldly  view  of  life  and  such 
its  tendency.  And  when  its  devotees  have 
been  disillusionized,  as  commonly  happens  if 
they  live  long  enough,  they  become  cynics ; 
that  is,  worldlings  who  have  found  the  world 
out  but  have  found  nothing  else  to  take  its 
place.  For  the  world  passeth  away  and  the 
lust  thereof.  It  cannot  long  satisfy  the  soul ; 


32  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

only  God  can  do  that.  No  one  knows  better 
than  the  sated  worldHng  that  it  would  profit 
nothing  to  gain  the  whole  world. 

The  ascetic  view  of  life  arises  as  a  revolt 
and  protest  against  the  worldly  view.  It  comes 
about  as  follows  :  The  great  body  of  tempta- 
tions arises  in  connection  with  one  phase  or 
another  of  daily  life.  The  physical  nature  is 
a  fruitful  source  of  temptation.  Family  life, 
social  life,  the  life  of  trade,  every  form  of 
human  activity  is  attended  with  temptation 
and  peril.  In  addition,  most  of  these  things 
have  no  lasting  or  valuable  goods  to  offer. 
Their  joys  soon  fail.  Seeing  their  danger  and 
scanty  value  in  any  case,  seeing  also  how 
completely  they  often  submerge  the  higher 
nature  of  men,  let  us  abandon  the  daily  and 
outward  life  so  far  as  possible,  and  in  holy 
retirement  therefrom  cultivate  the  spirit. 

This  view  has  made  deep  marks  on  history. 
It  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Christian 
world  ;  indeed,  its  greatest  manifestations  have 
been  in  non-Christian  lands.  In  India  and 
China   it  has  produced   swarms  of  world-re- 


RELIGION   AND   LIFE  33 

nouncers.  In  the  early  Christian  times  it  filled 
Egypt  and  Syria  with  hermits  and  anchorites, 
and  in  later  times  built  up  the  great  monastic 
institutions  of  the  medieval  church.  Nor  are 
traces  of  it  lacking  among  ourselves.  We  see 
it  in  the  distinction  of  secular  and  religious. 
We  see  it  in  the  false  notions  of  spirituality 
vs^hich  pervade  popular  religion.  We  are  will- 
ing to  allow  that  life  may  be  controlled  by 
religion,  but  still  we  let  it  appear  that  we  think 
it  detracts  from  relisfion.  The  ideal  would  be 
complete  retirement  from  life  and  all  its  secu- 
lar interests  to  engage  in  voiceless  adoration 
and  unceasing  worship. 

But  we  must  suppose  God's  supreme  pur- 
pose in  our  lives  is  our  spiritual  develojiment ; 
and  hence  w^e  cannot  suppose  that  he  has 
placed  us  in  a  life  the  great  forms  and  needs 
of  which  are  opposed  to  our  best  life.  Such  a 
thought  would  be  impiety.  This  ascetic  con- 
ception is  intelligible  as  a  revolt  against  the 
worldly  view,  but  it  is  no  less  mistaken  and 
pernicious.  The  great  forms  of  life  are  not  the 
outcome  of  sin,  but  of  our  constitution  and  of 


34  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

the  nature  of  things  ;  and  these  in  turn  are  the 
ordinance  of  God.  The  entrance  of  the  mil- 
lennium would  change  the  spirit  of  human  liv- 
ing, but  not  its  essential  forms.  Hence  any 
religion  possible  to  us  here  must  find  its  place 
in  the  world  as  God  has  made  it,  not  by  getting 
out  of  it,  nor  by  withdrawing  from  it,  but  by 
transforming  it  with  the  filial  spirit,  and  thus 
making  life  itself  our  religion  and  our  spirit- 
ual worship. 

This  brings  us  to  the  Christian  view,  which 
recofifnizes  the  truth  in  the  other  views  and 
reconciles  them  by  uniting  them  in  a  higher 
view.  The  truth  in  the  worldly  view  is  that 
the  life  that  now  is,  with  all  its  interests  and 
activities,  is  a  matter  of  prominent  concern. 
Christianity  completes  this  view  by  bringing 
the  life  that  now  is  into  relation  to  eternal  life, 
and  thus  gives  it  a  significance  which  it  does 
not  have  in  itself.  The  truth  in  the  ascetic 
view  is  that  the  worldly  life  by  itself  is  a  poor 
and  mean  thing,  and  that  only  spiritual  goods 
have  abiding  value.  Christianity  adopts  this 
truth,  but  corrects  the  error  of  supposing  that 


RELIGION  AND  LIFE  35 

life  as  a  divine  ordinance  is  common  or  un- 
clean, and  that  spiritual  goods  can  be  obtained 
apart  from  life  rather  than  in  and  through  the 
discipline  which  life  affords. 

Worldliness,  in  the  religious  use  of  the  term, 
is  not  the  being  occupied  with  secular  things. 
It  is  rather  a  spirit,  a  temper,  a  way  of  look- 
ing at  things  and  judging  things.  The  world- 
liness is  not  in  the  work,  but  in  the  spirit  of 
the  worker ;  and  it  may  be  manifested  in  con- 
nection with  any  kind  of  work.  Worldliness  can 
penetrate  even  into  prayer  and  preaching,  and 
the  most  sacred  work  can  be  done  in  a  worldly 
spirit.  In  like  manner  the  Christian  life  does 
not  consist  in  doing  formally  religious  things, 
though  these  have  their  place,  but  in  the  filial 
spirit  which  should  pervade  all  doing  and  all 
days  and  all  life  in  all  its  interests.  Whatso- 
ever the  Christian  does,  he  is  to  do  it  heartily, 
as  to  the  Lord  and  not  to  man.  And  this  liv- 
ing in  all  things  unto  the  Lord  is  his  religion. 

The  questions  of  the  Gentiles  press  equally 
on  both  the  Christian  and  the  worldly  man. 
What  shall  we  eat,  what  shall  we  drink,  and 


36  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed?  But  the 
Christian  does  not  rest  in  this  sense-life.  He 
relates  it  to  a  divine  purpose  and  seeks  to  glo- 
rify it  by  bringing  into  it  the  courage,  the 
dignity,  the  honor  of  a  child  of  God.  Life  is 
not  irreligious,  but  it  needs  to  be  subordinated 
to  the  Christian  spirit;  and  in  and  through 
this  life  we  are  to  realize  ourselves  and  glorify 
God. 

In  the  Christian  view,  then,  life  with  all  its 
interests  is  the  field  of  the  Christian  spirit ; 
and  life  with  all  its  forms  and  interests  is  the 
ordinance  of  God.  And  the  part  of  Christian 
wisdom  is  to  accept  it  as  God's  gift ;  as  the 
means  by  which  he  is  exercising  us  in  the  es- 
sential virtues  of  the  kingdom,  humility,  trust, 
obedience,  unselfishness,  and  also  the  means 
by  which  he  is  developing  us  into  larger  and 
larger  life,  and  by  testing  our  faithfulness  in 
a  few  things  fitting  us  to  become  rulers  over 
many. 

There  are  still  traces  among  us  of  the  notion 
that  reli2"ion  is  a  round  of  formal  rites  and 
observances,  and  concerns  itself  mainly,  if  not 


RELIGION  AND  LIFE  37 

exclusively,  with  exercises  of  technical  devo- 
tion and  worship,  such  as  prayer  and  church 
attendance.  We  still  hear  echoes  of  the  ascetic 
disparagement  of  wealth,  learning-,  culture, 
science,  art,  and  the  myriad  activities  of  civi- 
lized life  as  irrelioious  or  hostile  to  reli<rion. 
But  such  a  view  is  to  make  religion  only  one 
interest  among  many,  and  by  no  means  the 
most  important.  Religion  becomes  universal 
and  supreme  only  as  it  is  made  a  principle 
which  controls  all  living,  and  is  not  limited  to 
any  one  phase  of  life. 

Now  the  great  forms  of  human  life  and 
interest  are  the  conditions  of  a  large  human 
life,  and  are  included,  therefore,  in  the  divine 
plan  for  men.  Least  of  all  are  they  to  be 
viewed  as  sinful  or  as  the  outcome  of  sin  in 
any  way.  They  are  founded  in  our  constitution 
and  our  relations  to  things,  and  will  be  neces- 
sary as  long  as  this  constitution  remains,  even 
if  the  millennium  should  come.  If  the  millen- 
nium came  to-morrow  the  work  of  the  world 
would  have  to  go  on  just  the  same.  All  that 
would  be  eliminated  would  be  the  evil  will  and 


38  THE   ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

the  results  which  flow  from  it.  Education, 
trade,  transportation,  farming,  mining,  the 
manifold  productive  industries  of  the  world, 
the  administration  of  government  —  all  would 
go  on,  or  civilization  would  perish.  These  are 
absolutely  necessary  conditions  of  any  large 
human  life  as  we  are  at  present  constituted ; 
and  man  could  not  be  man  without  them. 
Not  less  trade,  but  more  conscience  is  the 
need  of  society ;  not  less  production,  but  a 
finer  spirit  in  both  producers  and  consumers. 
We  need  not  less  knowledge,  or  wealth,  or 
taste,  but  far  more  of  all  of  them,  and  all  of 
them  used  for  the  enlargement  and  upbuilding 
of  men.  God's  will  concerning  us  involves 
activity  in  all  these  lines,  an  activity  beyond 
anything  yet  attained,  but  it  also  involves 
the  subordination  of  all  these  activities  to 
the  spirit  of  love  and  righteousness.  And  the 
Christian  spirit,  instead  of  withdrawing  from 
this  life,  is  to  move  out  into  it  and  possess  it 
—  into  the  great  institutions  of  humanity,  the 
family,  the  school,  the  state,  and  build  them 
into  harmony  with  the  will  of  God.  Thus  the 


RELIGION  AND  LIFE  39 

kingdom  of  God  and  the  kingdom  of  man, 
which  are  essentially  the  same,  will  come. 

Nothing  which  I  have  said  is  to  be  under- 
stood as  denying  the  importance  of  the  formal 
exercises  of  religion.  There  is  indeed  a  susf- 
gestion  in  the  fact  that  the  Re  vela  tor  in  de- 
scribing his  vision  of  the  New  Jerusalem  says, 
"  And  I  saw  no  temple  therein  "  ;  but  such  a 
condition  is  not  possible  on  earth  in  our  pre- 
sent stage  of  development.  Still  it  must  be 
said  that  these  formal  exercises  are  not  reli- 
gion. At  best  they  are  only  one  phase  and 
manifestation  of  religion,  and  sometimes  they 
are  not  even  that.  But  the  religion  is  in  that 
fihal  attitude  of  the  spirit  which  in  all  things 
seeks  to  do  the  will  of  God ;  and  this  is  mani- 
fested quite  as  really  and  religiously  in  the  daily 
life  as  in  the  sanctuary.  Again,  if  we  define 
the  Church  as  the  organization  for  public  re- 
ligious worship,  for  religious  instruction,  and 
the  administration  of  religious  ordinances, 
then  we  must  say  that  it  is  only  one  of  God's 
instruments.  By  far  the  larger  part  of  God's 
work  upon  and  for  humanity  lies  outside  of 


40  THE  ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

the  Church,  in  the  great  institutions  of  the 
family,  the  state,  the  school,  and  in  the  great 
ordinance  of  labor.  By  and  through  these 
things,  also  and  preeminently,  as  well  as 
through  the  Church,  God  is  disciplining  and 
building  men  into  Hfe.  The  Church  is  the 
highest  institution,  but  by  no  means  the  most 
important. 

Now  in  this  Christian  view  of  life  and  its 
religious  value  we  have  a  wholesome  doctrine 
and  one  very  full  of  comfort.  We  need  this 
doctrine  to  broaden  religion  and  keep  it  sane 
and  sweet.  Religion  without  the  balance  of 
the  secular  life  tends  to  become  narrow  and 
silly,  or  fanatical  and  dangerous.  This  is 
abundantly  shown  by  the  course  of  religious 
history.  God's  method  of  building  men  by 
the  discipline  of  daily  life  is  far  better  than 
anything  men  have  devised.  The  most  dread- 
ful caricatures  of  both  sainthood  and  human- 
ity have  been  produced  by  the  ascetic  and 
other-worldly  inventions  of  good  men.  The 
only  way  to  keep  religion  sane  is  to  come  out 
of  the  cloister  and  out  of  all  supposed  holy 


RELIGION   AND   LIFE  41 

withdrawal  from  the  world,  and  set  ourselves 
on  the  positive  task  of  bringing  in  the  king- 
dom of  God,  or  of  making  God's  will  rule  in 
all  our  human  relations.  The  world  has  little 
need  of  technical  saints  or  of  holy  hermits,  but 
it  has  great  and  crying  need  of  good  men  and 
women  everywhere,  in  the  family  and  in  the 
community,  in  trade,  in  politics,  in  art,  in  lit- 
erature,—  men  and  women  who  can  be  trusted 
and  who  will  stand  everywhere  and  always  for 
the  things  that  are  good  and  true  and  pure, 
and  against  all  things  whatsoever  that  are  op- 
posed thereto.  One  great  need  of  the  piety  of 
our  time  is  to  overcome  its  narrow  and  ab- 
stract individualism,  with  its  selfish  scheme  of 
salvation,  and  see  that  Christianity  aims  to 
bring  all  things  into  obedience  to  Christ.  It 
redeems  not  merely  the  individual  man,  but 
all  his  activities,  relations,  and  institutions; 
and  not  until  this  is  done  will  the  triumph  be 
complete.  The  renewed  man  must  reveal  him- 
self in  a  renewed  society,  renewed  in  all  fac- 
tors and  details.  Along  with  the  new  heaven 
must  go  the  new  earth.  And  the  man  who 


42  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

does  not  hold  himself  responsible  in  the  meas- 
ure of  his  influence  for  bringing  in  the  new 
earth  may  rest  assured  that  he  will  have  no 
part  in  the  new  heaven. 

This  Christian  view  is  needed  to  redeem 
life  from  contempt.  Our  earthly  life,  apart 
from  some  divine  meaning  which  is  being  re- 
alized in  it  and  through  it,  is  petty  and  weari- 
some, and  not  worth  living.  Nerves  soon  grow 
irresponsive,  and  the  sensibility  becomes  jaded. 
Success  itself  soon  palls  on  the  earthly  plane, 
so  that  even  for  earthly  success  the  end  is 
vanity.  Hence  it  is  that  persons  living  on  the 
worldly  plane  so  often  grow  tired  of  life  and 
become  cynics  and  pessimists.  The  only  relief 
is  to  transform  life  by  the  power  of  Christian 
faith  and  principle.  We  cannot  get  clear  of 
it ;  we  ought  not  to  wish  to  get  clear  of  it ; 
but  we  can  live  it  unto  God.  To  see  this,  to 
realize  it,  to  live  it,  —  this  is  the  sum  of  Chris- 
tian wisdom. 


Ill 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  LIFE  AND  ITS 
PRACTICAL  SOLUTION 


m 

THE    MYSTERY    OF    LIFE    AND    ITS    PRACTICAL 
SOLUTION 

How  can  these  things  be  ?  —  John  23  :  9. 

What  is  that  to  thee?  Follow  thou  me.  —  John  21 :  22. 

The  question  of  Nicodemus  referred  to  the 
new  birth ;  but  it  is  equally  the  question  we  all 
ask  concerning  the  mysteries  of  life.  The 
question  of  our  Saviour  was  originally  a  re- 
buke and  an  admonition  to  the  misplaced 
curiosity  of  Peter,  but  it  is  equally  a  rebuke 
and  an  admonition  to  the  perennial  question- 
ing of  the  human  mind  concerning  the  ways 
of  God.  We  are  reminded  that  these  things 
are  not  our  affair,  and  that  our  duty  is  to 
take  up  the  life  of  obedience,  instead  of  losing 
ourselves  in  problems  which  are  beyond  us. 
My  subject,  then,  is:  The  mystery  of  life, 
and  the  solution  in  practical  obedience. 

First,  some  words  as  to  the  mystery. 

If  we  were  asked  what  kind  of  world  a  God 


46  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

all-wise,  good,  and  powerful  would  make,  we 
should  promptly  reply,  A  perfect  world,  a  re- 
flection of  his  wisdom  and  goodness,  some- 
thing manifestly  divine.  If  then  we  should 
compare  this  thought  with  the  real  world,  we 
should  find  very  little  agreement.  Almost 
nothing  would  be  as  we  expected ;  and  our 
amazement  and  astonishment  would  increase 
with  each  advance  of  knowledge. 

First,  the  history  of  the  inorganic  world 
amazes  us.  We  pass  backward  through  the 
seons  of  geology  and  ascend  through  the 
longer  cycles  of  astronomy.  We  find  immeas- 
urable periods  of  eddying  fire-mist,  of  slag 
and  flame,  of  mud  and  slime,  of  lifeless  shores 
washed  by  lifeless  seas.  We  watch  the  slow- 
moving  pointer  on  the  astronomic  and  geo- 
logic dial  only  to  discern  that  past  time  seems 
to  have  been  mainly  taken  up  with  these  life- 
less periods.  And  we  wonder  to  what  purpose 
this  slow  and  roundabout  method.  Did  God 
take  pleasure  in  that  lifeless  world  ?  Was  there 
some  hidden  obstacle  in  God  which  prevented 
a  speedier  attainment  of  his  purpose?  How 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  LIFE  47 

utterly  the  problem  is  beyond  us.  The  inor- 
ganic world  presents  a  thousand  questions  and 
answers  none. 

And  when  we  reach  the  world  of  life  again, 
what  a  surprise.  We  conceive  it  as  a  work  of 
divine  wisdom,  but  we  gaze  on  seaweeds  and 
fungi,  on  shapeless  and  hideous  monsters,  on 
revoltins:  forms  of  all  kinds.  How  little  of 
this  ancient  and  modern  life  has  any  obvious 
meaning.  Meaning,  indeed,  there  is;  these 
things  must  have  their  place  in  the  divine 
plan ;  but  it  is  altogether  hidden  from  us. 
For  the  great  bulk  of  things  that  have  lived, 
or  that  live,  we  see  no  manifest  purpose. 
They  seem  to  contribute  nothing  to  the  per- 
fection of  the  universe.  The  whole  army  of 
fungi  and  parasites  and  caterpillars  and  grass- 
hoppers and  locusts  could  be  dispensed  with 
without  any  apparent  damage  to  the  world. 
Microbes  and  bacteria,  fever  germs  and  mos- 
quitoes, w^hat  divine  purpose  or  perfection  do 
they  set  forth  ? 

In  much  of  this,  I  said,  we  discern  no  pur- 
pose ;  but  when  we  can  discern  one  it  often 


4'8  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

seems  to  make  matters  worse.  Claws,  fangs, 
and  venom  are  fixed  institutions  of  the  world, 
and  are  perfectly  adapted  to  their  fell  work. 
The  arrangements  for  propagating  disease  are 
exquisite.    The  death-dealing  instruments  of 
nature  are  superb.  The  animal  world  is  a  scene 
of  rapine  and  blood.  If  only  the  higher  forms 
of  life  were  nurtured  by  the  lower  this  might 
seem  permissible,  but  often  enough  it  is  just 
the  other  way.   The  higher   forms   succumb 
to  the  lower.  The  useful  plant  is  killed  out 
by  the  weed.  The  fruit-tree  is  destroyed  by  an 
insect  or  microscopic  spore.  The  wheat-field  is 
ravaged  by  a  bug,  contemptible  in  itself,  but 
irresistible  in  the  mass.  Disease  germs  creep 
forth  from  every  corner  to  destroy  human  life. 
A  mildew,  a  blight,  a  drought,  —  and  famine 
and  pestilence  follow  in  their  wake.  The  or- 
ganic world,  like   the  inorganic,  suggests  a 
thousand  questions  and  answers  none. 

But  these  are  questions  of  curiosity  rather 
than  of  practical  interest.  The  matter  grows 
more  serious  and  the  darkness  deepens  when 
we  come  to  the  human  world.  For  now  we 


THE   MYSTERY  OF   LIFE  49 

reach  a  realm  where  a  moral  meaning  is  pos- 
sible and  where  we  expect  to  discern  some 
worthy  end  and  outcome  of  creation.  But  to 
our  dismay  the  moral  meaning  is  but  dimly 
seen,  and  the  moral  aim  appears  to  be  largely 
isrnored.  Consider  the  main  facts  of  human 
history ;  what  a  fearful  image  they  present : 
the  many  races,  their  reciprocal  enmities, 
their  unending  wars,  their  mutual  massacre ; 
how  wave  after  wave  of  slaughter  has  rolled 
asrain  and  aj^ain  over  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Confusion,  blood,  and  the  noise  of  conflict  are 
ever  about  us  as  we  trace  the  history  of  men. 
Note  too  the  degradation  of  most  races  and 
the  scanty  attainments  of  the  best.  How  men 
have  wandered  in  error  and  darkness !  How 
their  minds  have  been  blinded  by  ignorance 
and  superstition  !  How  they  have  been  shut 
in  by  massive  necessities  which  could  not  be 
escaped !  And  the  races  which  have  attained 
to  some  development,  how  soon  and  how 
utterly  they  have  lost  it.  Egypt,  Babylon,  As- 
syria, Northern  Africa,  Western  Asia,  South- 
eastern Europe  illustrate.  In  fact,  there  has 


50  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

been  no  proper  history  for  most  human  races, 
but  only  an  aimless  and  resultless  drift.  No 
ideas,  no  outlook,  no  progress,  only  animal 
wants  and  instincts  largely  unsatisfied  —  this 
sums  up  the  history  of  the  vast  majority  of 
human  beinofs  who  have  lived  and  who  live  to 
this  day.  In  the  face  of  such  murderous  and 
despair-provoking  facts  how  can  we  say  that 
God  doeth  all  things  well  ? 

So  much  for  the  general  facts  of  history. 
Let  us  look  now  at  the  life  of  the  individual. 
Consider  first  the  general  form  of  our  life, 
with  its  necessary  prominence  of  the  physical 
and  animal.  There  seems  to  be  something  al- 
most grotesque  in  this  utter  subjection  of 
spiritual  beings  to  animal  needs.  Most  of  our 
thought  and  effort  has  to  be  given  to  the 
supply  of  our  ever-recurring  physical  wants; 
and  the  great  mass  of  men  have  to  spend  their 
lives  in  a  hard  and  exhausting  struggle  for 
bread.  And  not  only  are  we  subjected  to  ani- 
mal needs,  but  we  are  strangely  bound  even 
in  the  highest  life  by  physical  conditions. 
Some  organ  is  disordered,  some  nerve  refuses 


THE   MYSTERY   OF  LIFE  51 

its  function,  some  slight  change  in  the  chem- 
istry of  the  body,  and  the  moral  life  is  dis- 
torted or  destroyed.  We  believe  that  we  are 
the  children  of  God,  and  yet  we  find  our- 
selves in  the  closest  alliance  with  the  animal 
world,  subject  to  the  same  general  laws  of 
existence,  birth,  labor,  hunger,  pain,  all  soon 
ended  by  what,  from  the  standpoint  of  our 
high  spiritual  claims,  can  only  appear  as  a 
humiliating  and  sinister  anticlimax,  the  uni- 
versal fact  of  death. 

Consider  too  the  uncertainty  of  the  indi- 
vidual life  and  lot,  the  apparent  accidents  of 
health  and  fortune,  the  many  turnings  and 
overturnings  in  which  we  can  discern  no  plan 
or  justifying  outcome,  the  things  that  have 
impressed  men  with  the  sense  of  a  blind  fate 
or  blinder  chance  which  sports  with  men,  and 
by  which  our  best  plans  are  thwarted  or 
brought  to  naught.  If  these  things  followed 
lines  of  moral  desert,  we  should  find  some 
satisfaction  in  them,  but  this  they  rarely  do. 
The  writer  of  the  Seventy-third  Psalm  de- 
scribes the  prosperity  of  the  wicked  and  the 


52  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

afflictions  of  the  righteous;  and  the  distress 
which  came  to  him  over  these  things  has  come 
to  many  another  since.  The  oppressor  and  the 
oppressed,  the  wronger  and  the  wronged  alike 
in  numberless  cases  have  passed  away  and  jus- 
tice has  remained  undone.  How  often  the  good 
and  useful  are  taken  and  the  bad  and  worth- 
less are  left.  The  wise  man  dies  even  as  the 
fool,  and  in  spite  of  ourselves  the  cry  is  often 
wrung  from  us  that  all  is  vanity.  It  may  be 
that  we  shall  know  hereafter ;  but  most  cer- 
tainly we  do  not  know  now.  God's  ways  in 
dealing  with  men  are  not  as  our  ways,  nor  his 
thoughts  as  our  thoughts.  The  deepest  mystery 
enshrouds  them  all.  We  may  believe  that  God 
doeth  all  things  well,  but  we  walk  by  faith, 
not  by  sight. 

Thus  the  human  world,  both  in  its  general 
historical  form  and  in  the  facts  of  personal 
life,  agrees  with  the  inorganic  and  organic 
world  in  suggesting  a  thousand  questions  but 
answering  none.  And  in  the  human  world  they 
are  no  longer  questions  of  speculative  curi- 
osity;   they   are   the   keen,  eager,  insistent, 


THE   MYSTERY   OF  LIFE  53 

heart-shaking  questions  in  which  sometimes 
bitter  and  rebellious  feeling  bursts  forth  in 
angry  explosion,  or  which  at  other  times  are 
but  the  articulated  sobs  and  tears  of  smitten 
hearts,  or  the  protests  of  our  moral  nature.  If 
God  be  indeed  good,  we  say,  how  can  these 
thinjjs  be? 

Facts  of  this  kind,  of  which  I  have  given 
only  a  few  specimens,  constitute  the  problem 
of  evil.  They  are  the  things  we  should  not 
have  expected  in  the  world  of  a  good  God. 
And  men  have  made  very  great  efforts  to  ex- 
plain them,  but  with  very  little  success.  Many 
things  may  be  said  in  mitigation  and  palliation 
in  a  general  way,  but  after  all  a  great  deep  of 
mystery  remains  behind,  to  which  our  pro- 
foundest  thought  can  find  no  key.  This  is 
especially  the  case  with  the  problem  of  the 
individual  life.  A  kind  of  tendency  to  right- 
eousness and  goodness  in  general  may  be  dis- 
cerned in  things  in  general,  but  this  commonly 
leaves  the  problem  of  the  individual  as  dark  as 
ever ;  and  this  problem  is  the  only  one  of  any 
real  significance.  This  is 


54  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

"  the  burthen  of  the  mystery, 
.  .  .  the  heavy  and  the  wear^  weight 
Of  all  this  unintelligible  world." 

Here  then  we  hav|  the  problem  arising  from 
the  mystery  and  confusion  of  life;  and  rightly 
enough  the  question  arises,  How  can  these 
things  be?  We  now  turn  to  the  answer,  "  What 
is  that  to  thee?  Follow  thou  me." 

Of  courg^  I  am  not  now  constructing  a 
philosophic  discussion  or  carrying  on  a  debate 
with  the  unbeliever.  I  am  talking  from  the 
standpoint  of  our  Christian  faith.  And  I  note 
in  the  first  place  that  this  is  not  the  answer 
of  heartlessness.  It  is  the  answer  of  the  parent 
to  the  child  that  would  busy  itself  with  prob- 
lems beyond  its  range,  and  would  postpone 
obedience  to  satisfy  an  ill-timed  curiosity. 
It  is  also  the  answer  of  one  who  has  given  us 
all  the  light  we  need  for  the  performance  of 
our  duty  and  for  trust  in  him.  With  this  un- 
derstanding let  us  see  how  the  facts  are  met. 

I.  The  facts  are  recognized.  We  are  not 
mocked  by  being  told  that  there  is  no  evil  or 
pain  in  the  world.    Their  presence  is  affirmed 


THE   MYSTERY   OF   LIFE  55 

and  the  mystery  of  God's  providence  is  ad- 
mitted. His  ways  are  not  as  our  ways,  nor  his 
thouo^hts  as  our  thouo^hts.  Rijjhteousness  and 
judgment  are  round  about  him.  The  word  is, 
"  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou 
shalt  know  hereafter."  Pessimism  itself  has 
never  been  elsewhere  so  powerfully  stated  as 
in  St.  Paul's  declaration  that  the  whole  crea- 
tion groans  and  travails  in  pain. 

II.  We  are  told  that  all  is  well  and  that 
we  shall  yet  see  it.  In  spite  of  mystery  and 
misery,  and  "  graves  and  ruins  and  the  wrecks 
of  things,"  the  world  is  ever  borne  Godward. 
The  present  is  only  the  beginning,  and  not 
the  end.  If  we  knew  all  we  should  see  that 
the  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  right- 
eous altogether.  Now  we  see  through  a  glass 
darkly,  and  then  face  to  face. 

III.  God  makes  a  revelation  of  himself  and 
his  gracious  purposes  which  enables  us  to 
trust  him  when  we  do  not  understand  him. 
In  most  respects  the  ways  of  God  are  quite  as 
mysterious  to  us  with  the  Bible  as  without  it; 
and  in  some  respects  they  are  even  more  so. 


56  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

All  of  the  questions  mere  curiosity  raises  are 
ignored.  But  we  get  light  on  the  point  of  su- 
preme importance ;  namely,  what  God  is  and 
what  his  purpose  is  concerning  men.  Through 
the  rifts  in  the  thick-rolling  clouds  of  mystery 
we  discern  the  face  of  our  Heavenly  Father 
and  Almighty  friend.  We  see  God  bending 
in  love  and  sorrow  over  humanity,  and  in  an 
act  of  mysterious  cost  and  pain  giving  his  Son 
for  our  salvation.  We  know  as  little  as  before 
why  things  are  as  they  are ;  but  we  know 
nevertheless  that  they  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  God.  We  have  no  insight 
into  the  way  in  which  God's  love  is  working, 
but  we  know  with  St.  Paul  that  nothing  can 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God  or  thwart 
his  loving  will  —  nothing,  whether  it  be 
death  or  life,  or  things  present,  or  things  to 
come,  or  height  or  depth  or  any  other  created 
thing  whatsoever.  For  if  God  be  for  us,  who 
or  what  can  be  effectively  against  us  ? 

We  have,  then,  in  the  Scriptures,  not  a  sat- 
isfaction of  our  curiosity,  but  a  revelation  of 
God  and  of  our  duties.  And  having  made  this 


THE   MYSTERY   OF   LIFE  57 

sufficient  revelation  of  himself,  sufficient  to  as- 
sure us  of  his  goodness  and  grace  and  to  en- 
lighten us  to  our  own  duty,  God  demands  our 
trust  and  obedience.  He  will  satisfy  no  idle 
curiosity.  He  submits  to  no  examination  on 
our  part,  but  with  divine  dignity  demands 
that  we  leave  the  ordering  of  the  universe  to 
him  and  apply  ourselves  to  our  own  work. 
"What  is  that  to  thee?  Follow  thou  me." 

And  this  is  rijrht.  The  God  and  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  God  whom  Jesus 
revealed,  deserves  our  trust.  All  that  we  need 
to  know  is  that  almighty  power  and  goodness 
and  wisdom  are  on  the  throne  of  the  universe  ; 
and  this  is  our  most  assured  Christian  faith. 
And  when  this  assurance  is  given,  our  duty  of 
trust  and  obedience  becomes  most  manifest. 
Both  philosophy  and  religion  unite  in  rebuk- 
ing the  impertinence  and  the  impiety  which 
would  postpone  obedience  to  satisfy  curiosity, 
and  which  lose  themselves  in  barren  cosmic 
criticism  while  neo^lectino:  the  immediate  and 
obvious  duties  of  life.  Could  anything  well  be 
more  absurd  than  our  complaint  of  a  being 


68  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

whom  we  believe  to  be  infinitely  wise  and 
good?  An  atheist  might  say  that  he  does  not 
recognize  any  such  being,  and  he  is  not  absurd 
in  his  complaint  of  the  order  of  things.  But 
the  Christian  who  believes  in  an  all-wise,  all- 
powerful,  all-loving  Heavenly  Father,  and  yet 
complains  of  the  divine  ordering  of  the  world, 
is  simply  childish.  He  is  not  a  bad  reasoner, 
he  is  no  reasoner  at  all.  He  does  not  under- 
stand the  implications  of  his  own  faith,  but 
like  a  child  wants  this  or  that  according  to  the 
whim  of  the  moment,  and  cries  if  he  does  not 
get  it. 

Now  in  the  first  place  this  divine  reserve  is 
intellectually  necessary  because  of  the  limita- 
tions of  our  intelligence.  It  is  doubtful  if  we 
could  understand  the  solution  of  these  world 
problems  even  if  it  were  revealed  to  us  ;  for  in 
concrete  matters  we  can  understand  only  that 
to  which  our  own  experience  furnishes  the 
key.  A  child  cannot  comprehend  the  meas- 
ures and  motives  of  mature  life,  owing  to  the 
lack  of  faculty  and  the  necessary  development. 
It  neither  has,  nor  can  have,  the  experience 


THE   MYSTERY   OF   LIFE  59 

necessary  to  make  mature  life  intelligible. 
Consider  a  child  which  should  attempt  to 
estimate  its  parents'  goodness  by  the  little 
whims  respecting  goodness  which  its  own  ex- 
perience makes  possible.  It  could  only  con- 
clude that  they  were  not  good,  because  it 
would  completely  lack  that  insight  into  the 
truer  and  hiofher  ofoods  of  life  w^hich  is  needed 
to  make  the  parents'  action  intelligible.  The 
child  wishes  to  play,  but  it  is  sent  to  school. 
It  finds  study  a  burden,  but  it  must  bear  it 
nevertheless.  At  every  point  it  is  met  with 
restraints  and  compulsions  which  seem  harsh 
and  unlovinof.  This  we  all  understand  in  the 
case  of  the  child.  But  whoever  will  consider 
our  ignorance,  the  mystery  which  enwraps  us 
on  every  side,  our  limited  experience  also  and 
the  scanty  moral  appreciation  of  the  highest 
things  in  life,  will  see  that  this  must  largely  be 
the  case  with  us  in  our  criticism  of  the  divine 
order  of  the  world,  and  the  divine  dealings 
with  us.  Morally  we  are  children  still,  and  we 
estimate  the  goodness  of  God  by  our  childish 
standards. 


60  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

It  is  but  an  extension  of  this  thought  when 
I  add  that  this  divine  reserve  is  also  morally 
necessary.  A  great  part  of  our  trouble  with 
the  divine  order  of  life  is  due  to  our  non- 
moral  standards.  We  judge  the  goods  of  life 
by  standards  of  sensuous  comfort  and  worldly 
success,  and  God  has  a  very  different  standard. 
We  desire  to  be  happy ;  God  wishes  us  to  be 
holy.  We  look  at  the  outward  appearance; 
God  looketh  at  the  heart.  We  look  at  the  seen 
and  temporal ;  God  looketh  at  the  unseen  and 
eternal.  We  seek  to  make  God  the  servant  of 
our  worldly  ease  and  comfort,  while  he  is  seek- 
ing to  make  us  his  children,  meet  to  dwell  with 
him  in  light.  A  great  many  of  Our  difficulties 
disappear  when  we  occupy  the  divine  stand- 
point and  view  things  under  the  form  of  the 
eternal.  God  is  not  much  concerned  to  make 
us  any  of  the  things  which  the  natural  man 
desires  to  be,  —  rich,  prosperous,  successful,  as 
men  count  success.  These  are  accidents  which 
count  for  little  in  the  eternal  years.  Hence 
the  apparent  indifference  and  even  cruelty  of 
the  divine  dealings  with  us.  We  set  our  heart 


THE   MYSTERY  OF   LIFE  61 

on  things  we  may  not  safely  have.  We  desire 
things  which  are  of  no  essential  moment  or 
abiding  significance.   We  seek  to  rest  in  an 
earthly  paradise,  while  God  is  preparing  us  for 
a  heavenly.    Thus  God's  plans  and  ours  are 
often  at  variance  ;  because  we  are  not  yet  able 
to  appreciate  that  he  is  preparing  some  better 
thing  for  us.   But  we  gradually  grow  towards 
the    insight.    We    ourselves    have    outgrown 
many  of  our  earlier  aims.   We  have  not  to  go 
back  a  long  way  to  reach  the  place  where  we 
smile  at  our  earlier  sorrows.    We  see  that  a 
great  many  things  we  once  most  ardently  de- 
sired were  idle,  and  that  many  of  our  disap- 
pointments were  those  of  children.    We  turn 
from  them  with  a  smile  and  wonder  how  we 
could  ever  have  been  stirred  by  them.    And 
this  happens  with  all  earthly  objects  as  the 
world  and  the  lust  thereof  pass  away.  We  our- 
selves begin  to  see,  if  we  live  long,  that  all  the 
universe  could  not   finally  satisfy   the    soul. 
This  soul  God  has  made  for  himself,  and  only 
God  can  satisfy  it. 

Again,  the  divine  reserve  is  religiously  nee- 


62  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

essary.  The  deepest  thing  in  religion  is  living 
trust  and  filial  obedience ;  and  how  would  this 
trust  be  possible  unless  there  were  mystery  in 
life  which  compels  us  to  venture  on  God? 
There  must  of  course  be  reason  in  parental 
government,  but  the  child  that  does  not  begin 
with  trusting  obedience,  that  must  have  every- 
thing explained  to  it  before  it  will  obey,  is  a 
sorry  sight.  Sadder  still  is  his  case  who  has 
not  learned  the  lesson  of  trust  in  religion.  No 
one  knows  what  it  is  to  walk  with  God  in  the 
deepest  sense,  who  has  not  walked  with  him  in 
the  dark.  Indeed  the  very  da,rkness  itself  may 
become  the  source  of  some  of  our  deepest  ex- 
periences. It  is  a  great  experience  to  be  in  a 
mighty  storm  at  sea,  when  we  have  full  confi- 
dence in  the  captain  and  the  vessel.  As  the  ship 
goes  ploughing  resistlessly  along  through  the 
deep  night,  driven  by  its  heart  of  fire,  and  one 
hears  the  lookout  crying,  All 's  well :  the  soul, 

"  Into  the  consciousness  of  safety  thrilled, 
Swells  vast  to  heaven," 

and  claims  kindred  with  and  triumphs  over 

the  forces  of  the  storm.   A  similar  but  greater 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  LIFE  63 

experience  is  it  when  a  storm  comes  down  upon 
life's  sea,  and  rayless  darkness  sets  in,  to  know 
that  the  Great  Captain  is  on  board  and  to  hear 
his  voice  across  the  storm  proclaiming  that  all 
is  well.  Then  and  only  then  do  we  know  the 
full  meaning  of  that  word,  "  Thou  wilt  keep 
him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  stayed  on 
thee." 

Thus,  as  men  are  made,  an  element  of  mys- 
tery is  needed  for  the  development  of  both  the 
moral  and  the  religious  life.  If  the  glory  and 
majesty  of  the  Divine  were  always  shining  full 
upon  us,  our  human  life  could  not  go  on  at 
all.  And  if  right  were  always  immediately  tri- 
umphant and  rewarded,  our  moral  freedom 
would  be  practically  cancelled,  and  our  loyalty 
to  righteousness  would  disappear  in  the  ob- 
viousness of  the  reward.  We  may  say  with 
Bagehot  that  "an  unfeeling  nature,  an  un- 
moral universe,  a  sun  that  shines  and  rain 
which  falls  equally  on  the  evil  and  the  good 
are  essential  to  morality  in  a  being  free  like 
man  and  created  as  man  was." 

Thus  it  is  plain  that  both  our  duty  and  our 


64  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

wisdom  lie  in  obedience  to  and  trust  in  God, 
rather  than  in  criticism  of  his  ways.  The  or- 
dering of  the  world  belongs  to  God ;  it  is  a 
much  smaller  task  which  falls  to  us.  And  if 
we  reflect  we  shall  see  that  our  inquiry  in  this 
matter  seldom  arises  from  a  desire  to  know 
more  of  duty  or  to  become  more  effective  and 
helpful  in  life,  but  from  an  idle  curiosity  and 
a  desire  to  excuse  ourselves  from  doing  our 
own  work.  There  is  a  deal  of  this  idle  criticism 
abroad.  We  hear  it  in  conversation ;  we  meet 
it  in  magazines.  Popular  literature  is  full  of  it. 
We  wonder  why  things  are  as  they  are,  but 
we  do  nothing  to  make  them  better.  We  are 
sure  we  could  have  given  good  advice,  if  we 
had  been  consulted  in  the  original  ordering 
of  the  world,  but  we  never  get  beyond  advice. 
And  this  thing  is  far  from  being  either  harm- 
less or  innocent.  It  leads  us  to  overlook  our 
own  responsibility.  Bad  as  the  world  may  be, 
and  far  as  it  may  fall  below  our  lofty  ideals, 
it  would  be  a  pretty  fair  world  to  live  in  if 
men  began  to  love  God  with  all  their  hearts 
and  their  neighbors  as  themselves.  The  good- 


THE   MYSTERY   OF   LIFE  65 

ness  of  the  world,  so  far  as  it  is  God's  work, 
consists  in  the  possibility  of  being  made  a 
great  deal  better;  and  whether  it  shall  be 
made  better  depends  on  us.  The  human  world 
is  perpetually  what  men  make  it.  And  what 
is  most  needed  is  not  cosmic  critics  and  specu- 
lators, but  men  and  women  who  will  begin 
right  where  they  are  to  make  better  that  part 
of  the  world  for  which  they  are  responsible. 
Such  men  and  women  will  seldom  be  pessi- 
mists. They  will  find  their  efforts  divinely  re- 
enforced  and  supplemented ;  and  the  convic- 
tion will  grow  from  more  to  more  that  God  is 
in  his  heaven  and  in  his  world  too.  The 
doubts  concerning  God  and  his  goodness  and 
the  wisdom  of  the  providential  order  of  things 
rarely  come  from  those  who  are  honestly  busy 
in  making  the  world  better. 

And  this  leads  to  a  final  reflection.  Cer- 
tainty in  concrete  things  is  a  matter  of  life 
rather  than  speculation.  This  is  one  of  the  chief 
insights  of  modern  philosophy;  and  this  is 
especially  true  of  religious  certainty.  It  does 
not  come  through  speculation,  but  through 


66  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

trust  and  obedience.    If  we  would  have  firm 
confidence  in  God  and  a  deeper  sense  of  his 
presence,  we  must  obey  him.  We  must  order 
our  lives  according  to  his  will  and  thus  build 
ourselves  up  on  this  most  holy  faith.  It  is  the 
meek  whom  he  guides  in  judgment,  and  the 
meek  whom  he  teaches  his  way.  To  the  obedi- 
ent heart,  while  the  ways  of  God  remain  as 
dark  as  ever,  they  offer  no  practical  difficulty. 
Trust  has  never  been  dependent  on  pleasant 
circumstances,  and  pessimism  is  never  born  of 
simple  trouble.  The  song  of  thanksgiving  and 
devout  gratitude  has  ascended  from  the  couch 
of  suffering  and  the  home  of  want ;  and  God's 
goodness  is  often  most  clearly  discerned  by 
eyes  that  are  filled  with  tears.  The  wail  of 
pessimism,  on  the  other  hand,  is  often  heard 
from  the  pillows  of  luxury  and  from  those  who 
have  more  than  heart  could  wish.  God  finds 
his  way  to  the  faithful  and  loving  heart  not  by 
speculation,  but  by  self-revelation  in  the  in- 
spirations of  the  Spirit  and  the  tender  minis- 
tries of  the  Comforter.  And  with  this  divine 
help  and  cheer  we  can  be  reconciled  to  life, 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  LIFE  67 

can  cheerfully  wait  until  the  day  breaks  and 
the  shadows  flee  away. 

It  is  indeed  a  God  of  mystery  with  whom 
we  have  to  do.  Clouds  and  darkness  are  in- 
deed about  him.  What  questions  throng  upon 
us  concerning  our  own  lives  and  lot,  concern- 
ing the  order  of  human  life  and  history  in 
general,  concerning  the  multitudes  who  seem 
never  to  have  had  a  chance,  the  great  dumb 
uncivilized  world  also  with  its  accumulated 
horrors  and  woes,  the  state  of  the  dead,  and 
the  future  of  the  wicked.  And  how  insoluble 
these  questions  are.  But  while  it  is  a  God  of 
mystery  with  whom  we  have  to  do,  it  is  equally 
a  God  of  goodness.  It  is  the  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the  God  who 
so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  Son  to  be 
our  Redeemer.  We  are  in  his  hands  and  we 
are  safe ;  and  all  good  things  are  safe.  We 
need  not  trouble  ourselves  to  justify  him. 
When  he  wishes  to  be  justified,  he  will  justify 
himself.  We  leave  all  the  inquiries  that  op- 
press us  with  him  in  the  full  faith  that  he 
knows  and  wills  what  is  best.    We  trust  him. 


68  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

We  trust  him  with  our  lives,  with  humanity, 
with  the  living  and  the  dead,  with  heaven  and 
hell.  Meanwhile  our  immediate  duty  is  to  obey 
him,  to  set  our  own  lives  in  the  order  of  right- 
eousness. And  the  life  thus  bent  on  doing 
the  will  of  God  and  bringing  in  his  Kingdom 
is  never  left  in  practical  uncertainty  concern- 
ing the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God.  He  that 
doeth  the  will  of  God  it  is  who  knoweth  of 
the  doctrine;  and  only  his  judgment  is  just 
in  these  matters  who  doeth  not  his  own  will, 
but  the  will  of  the  Father  in  Heaven. 

If,  then,  we  have  been  idly  curious  concern- 
ing the  ways  of  God,  to  the  neglect  of  our 
own  duty,  let  us  take  the  Master's  rebuke  to 
our  hearts.  The  ordering  of  the  world  is  not 
our  affair,  but  only  the  doing  of  the  work 
given  us  to  do.  Let  us  remember  that  we  have 
a  Master  to  whom  we  must  give  an  account  re- 
specting our  own  faithfulness.  Or  if  we  have 
been  oppressed  by  the  mystery  and  the  burden 
of  life,  let  us  also  leave  these  fruitless  and 
harassing  questions  for  the  present,  and  let 
us  more  faithfully  abide  in  the  life  of  obedi- 


THE   MYSTERY   OF   LIFE  69 

ence  and  trust.  Thus  we  shall  come  to  the 
conviction  that  we  are  in  our  Father's  hands, 
and  that  he  is  doing  all  things  well.  In  this 
faith  we  can  live  in  good  cheer  until  we 
pass  beyond  the  night  and  know  as  we  are 
known. 


IV 

RIGHTEOUSNESS  THE  ESSENCE  OF 
RELIGION 


IV 

RIGHTEOUSNESS   THE    ESSENCE    OF   RELIGION 

He  hath  shewed  thee,  0  man,  Avhat  is  good ;  and  what  doth  the 
Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?  —  Micah  0  :  8. 

In  the  religious  history  of  mankind  in  gen- 
eral there  has  been  little  connection  between 
religion  and  righteousness  in  the  ethical  sense. 
Even  the  Jewish  church  was  slow  in  reaching 
the  conception  of  personal  and  moral  right- 
eousness as  the  central  thing  in  religion.  For 
a  loncj  time  legal  and  ritual  riohteousness 
was  the  main  thing,  rather  than  holiness  of 
heart  and  life.  The  prophets  were  the  earliest 
preachers  of  spiritual  religion.  They  saw  that 
God  looks  at  the  heart,  and  that  what  he  su- 
premely desires  is  the  inward  loyalty  to  right- 
eousness. Everything  else  is  instrumental  to 
this.  But  there  is  always  a  tendency  with  the 
mechanically  and  unspiritually  minded  to  mis- 
take the  forms  and   adjuncts  and   rites  and 


74  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

ceremonies  of  religion  for  religion  itself,  and 
to  rest  in  them.  This  happens  in  our  own  day; 
the  religious  thought  and  life  of  many  centre 
in  the  externals  of  religion  ;  and  all  the  more 
it  happened  in  the  times  of  ignorance  of  the 
ancient  church.  Hence  the  prophets  had  as 
one  of  their  burdens  to  oppose  this  tendency 
and  to  set  forth  the  spiritual  nature  of  God's 
demands.  One  Psalmist  sings,  "  Sacrifice  and 
offering  thou  didst  not  desire.  Burnt  offering 
and  sin  offering  hast  thou  not  required.  Then 
said  I,  Lo,  I  come  ...  to  do  thy  will,  0  God." 
Isaiah  represents  God  as  wearied  with  sacri- 
fices. '^  To  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to 
hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams,"  according  to 
Samuel.  "  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken 
and  contrite  heart.  "  "  Cease  to  do  evil ;  learn 
to  do  well;  seek  justice,  relieve  the  oppressed, 
judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow." 
These  are  Jehovah's  demands  as  Isaiah  under- 
stood them.  Amos  has  the  same  strain.  "  Hate 
the  evil  and  love  the  good,  and  establish  judg- 
ment in  the  gate."  The  fast  which  God  has 
chosen  is  "to  loose  the  bands  of  wickedness, 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  75 

to  undo  the  heavy  burdens,  and  to  let  the 
oppressed  go  free."  Micah,  also,  in  one  of  the 
greatest  utterances  in  the  Bible,  sums  up  God's 
demands  in  doing  justly,  loving  mercy,  and 
waging  humbly  with  God.  This  was  an  abso- 
lute break  with  the  cruel  idolatries  of  his  time, 
with  their  Moloch-worship,  and  self-immola- 
tion; and  it  remains  a  most  illuminating  utter- 
ance even  for  our  time.  It  mio^ht  be  called  the 
Magna  Charta  of  spiritual  religion. 

Micah's  statement  might  be  paraphrased  as 
follows  without  alterino-  its  essential  meaninof : 
Religion  in  its  essence  is  righteousness  and 
good-will  toward  men  and  reverent  humility 
and  obedience  toward  God.  And  this,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  no  lonely  utterance  of  this 
prophet ;  it  is  the  underlying  idea  of  both 
prophetic  and  apostolic  teaching,  as  well  as  of 
the  teachinof  of  our  Lord.  And  this  is  the 
theme  I  wish  to  expound  and  enforce.  What- 
ever our  theological  faith,  whatever  our  reli- 
gious practices,  and  whatever  our  religious 
pedagogics,  their  sole  use  and  value  consist  in 
helping  us  to  lives  of  love  and  righteousness 


76  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

before  God  and  man.  This  is  that  for  which 
they  exist  and  that  which  gives  them  meaning 
and  justification.  A  resolute  holding  fast  to 
this  princijDle  will  clear  up  many  things  which 
in  popular  religious  thought  are  now  confuted. 
The  religious  history  of  the  church  is  a  very 
complex  matter  ;  and  the  views  current  at  any 
time  are  seldom  thoroughly  intelligible  apart 
from  the  history  which  has  produced  them. 
They  do  not  express  the  fact  in  its  simplicity, 
but  the  fact  as  it  has  been  modified  and  per- 
haps distorted  by  the  one-sided  men  who  have 
dealt  with  it.  This  is  also  the  case  with  the 
conceptions  of  personal  religion  which  obtain 
in  our  individualistic  churches  to-day.  They 
are  quite  as  much  products  of  a  history  as 
expressions  of  the  essential  fact.  They  are  the 
outcome  of  theological  debates  concerning 
human  nature,  original  sin,  native  depravity, 
natural  goodness,  etc.  They  are  also  the  out- 
come of  debates  concerning  state  churches 
and  sacerdotal  proxyism,  mechanical  and  spirit- 
ual religion,  individual  or  churchly  responsi- 
bility, salvation  by  faith  or  by  works.  All  of 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  77 

these  things  have  affected  our  conception  of 
personal  religion,  so  that  with  many  the  typical 
conception  of  religion  is  not  to  be  gathered 
from  Christian  living,  but  from  catechisms  and 
books  of  doctrine.  They  aim  to  experience 
theology  rather  than  religion. 

There  is  still  another  thing  which  has  greatly 
confused  popular  religious  thought ;  and  that 
is  the  current  form  of  speech  according  to 
which  religion  is  something  to  be  got.  In  this 
form  of  speech  in  its  various  modifications 
religion  is  tacitly  regarded  as  a  mysterious 
something,  distinct  from  righteousness,  which 
in  some  way  is  to  be  got ;  and  the  difference 
between  the  moral  man,  in  the  sense  of  the 
righteous  man,  and  the  religious  man,  is  that 
the  latter  has  got  religion,  while  the  former 
has  not.  Hence,  if  one  would  become  reli- 
gious, it  is  not  sufficient  that  the  wicked 
should  forsake  his  way  and  the  unrighteous 
man  his  thoughts  and  turn  unto  the  Lord, — 
that  would  be  mere  morality ;  he  must  in  addi- 
tion "  get  religion."  And  as  no  one  can  give  a 
very  clear  account  of  what  this  getting  reli- 


78  THE   ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

gion  is,  or  what  the  religion  is  which  is  to  be 
got,  in  distinction  from  holy  living,  the  mat- 
ter grows  more  and  more  mysterious  the  more 
it  is  talked  about.  If  the  demand  were  sim- 
ply that  we  should  do  justly  and  love  mercy 
and  walk  humbly  with  God,  it  might  indeed 
be  difficult  to  meet  it ;  but  it  would  be  intel- 
ligible. We  know  what  justice  and  mercy  and 
seeking  to  do  God's  will  mean  ;  there  is  no 
mystery  about  them  and  need  be  no  confu- 
sion. But  the  demand  is  thought  to  be  more 
than  this ;  we  must  "  get  religion,"  it  is  said ; 
and  thus  popular  thought  is  confused  again. 
And  the  confusion  is  further  increased  by  the 
fancy  that  the  possession  of  this  mysterious 
something  is  revealed  by  some  peculiar  expe- 
rience, generally  of  an  emotional  type,  in 
which  the  fact  declares  itself.  This  adds  an 
additional  element  of  mystery  and  confusion. 
Instead  of  remaining  in  the  open  day  of 
righteousness  and  obedience  to  God's  com- 
mandments,  we  are  set  to  groping  in  the  ob- 
scure labyrinths  of  emotional  psychology, 
lookins:  for  we  know  not  what.    As  a  result 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  79 

of  all  these  misconceptions,  it  is  very  rare  to 
find  inquirers  and  even  church  members  who 
have  attained  to  the  prophet's  insight  into  the 
simplicity  of  God's  demands  upon  us. 

There  is  great  need  of  getting  down  to  first 
principles  in  this  matter ;  indeed,  there  is  no 
other  way  of  escaping  the  traditional  and  cur- 
rent confusions  on  the  subject,  confusions 
resting,  as  said,  upon  a  polemical  theological 
history  rather  than  a  first-hand  experience  and 
impartial  study  of  the  facts.  And  I  would 
propose  as  a  first  step  toward  clearness  that 
we  cease  talkinor  about  relig-ion  as  somethin<r 
to  be  got,  and  indeed  that  we  cease  talking 
about  religion  at  all.  In  fact,  we  are  not  called 
upon  to  be  religious ;  we  are  under  no  obli- 
gation whatever  to  be  religious ;  there  is  no- 
where any  commandment  to  have  religion. 
We  are  called  upon  to  be  righteous,  and  to 
fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments.  And 
these  phrases  about  getting  and  having  re- 
ligion have  so  little  definite  meaning  in  them- 
selves, and  so  readily  lend  themselves  to  con- 
fusion and  misunderstanding,  that  w*e  shall 


80  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

do  well  to  replace  them  by  other  forms  of 
speech  which  shall  clearly  express  the  reality 
in  the  case,  namely,  the  righteous  life.  "  Let 
the  wicked  forsake  his  way  and  the  unright- 
eous man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  return 
unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy  upon 
him,  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly 
pardon."  "  What  doth  the  Lord  require  of 
thee,  but  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God?"  All  this  is  in- 
telligible to  every  one.  It  may  be  difficult  to 
do  this,  but  it  is  easy  to  see  what  is  to  be 
done.  Dropping  this  phrase  about  getting 
and  having  religion,  and  using  the  prophet's 
language  instead,  would  greatly  clarify  our 
thought.  It  would  also  make  less  easy  the 
evasion  of  righteous  living  on  the  part  of 
professors  of  religion  which  sometimes  scan- 
dalizes both  the  world  and  the  church.  Many 
persons  are  found  who  claim  to  have  religion, 
but  it  is  no  security  for  right  living.  They 
have  religion,  but  you  cannot  trust  them. 
They  have  religion,  but  their  word  is  worth 
nothing.    They  have  religion,  but  that  is  no 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  81 

security  against  all  manner  of  insincerity  and 
meanness.  They  have  religion,  but  they  lack 
that  simple  integrity  which  is  the  basis  of  all 
noble  character.  It  is  really  an  open  question 
whether  the  ethics  of  religious  persons  is 
notably  better  than  the  ethics  of  others  of  the 
same  opportunities  and  social  standing,  or 
whether,  if  there  be  any  difference,  it  is  due 
to  their  religion.  One  does  not  always  find 
church  members,  or  even  ministers,  peculiarly 
trustworthy  in  business,  or  delicately  scrupu- 
lous in  matters  of  veracity,  or  especially  averse 
to  underhand  measures  for  carrying  out  their 
plans.  This  is  not  commonly  due  to  hypocrisy, 
but  it  is  at  least  partly  due  to  the  mistaken 
separation  of  religion  and  righteousness ;  to 
the  fancy  that  religion  is  something  which 
can  be  had  or  got,  something  the  possession 
of  which,  like  a  kind  of  talisman,  distinguishes 
the  possessor  from  all  others  and  marks  him 
off  as  religious.  We  shall  always  be  exposed 
to  this  sad  caricature,  if  not  hypocrisy,  until 
we  see  that  in  Christian  thought  there  is  no 
such    thing  as   having    religion    apart   from 


82  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

righteous  living,  or  that  true  religion  in  God's 
sight  is  nothing  but  righteous  living  in  the 
love  of  man  and  God. 

Let  us  repeat  then,  with  the  ancient  prophet, 
that  the  sum  of  God's  demands  is  to  live  justly, 
to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  in  humility  before 
him.  When  one  is  summoned  to  the  religious 
life  he  is  not  called  to  anything  mysterious 
and  unintelligible,  but  to  something  level  to 
every  mind.  He  is  called  to  live  a  life  of  jus- 
tice and  mercy  among  men.  He  is  called  to 
relate  his  life  to  God's  will  and  walk  in  filial 
reverence  before  him.  So  much  and  nothing 
more ;  but  also  so  much  and  nothing  less. 
Whatever  mystery  there  may  be  in  religion 
lies  elsewhere,  but  this  central  aim  and  meaning 
is  sun  clear.  And  this  spiritual  religion  is  not 
a  mysterious  something  to  be  got,  nor  a  secret 
talisman  to  be  possessed.  It  is  simply  a  per- 
fectly intelligible  manner  of  living,  to  be  ac- 
quired and  practiced  and  made  habitual  by  the 
divine  help ;  not  to  get  something,  but  to  live 
in  the  spirit  and  practice  of  justice  and  mercy 
and  reverent  submission  and  obedience  to  the 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  83 

will  of  God.  AVe  must  bold  fast  to  this  as  the 
one  fixed  point  with  which  all  our  thinking  on 
personal  religion  must  begin,  and  from  which 
it  must  never  depart.  This  is  the  central  aim 
and  meaning  bj  which  every  religious  profes- 
sion and  system  must  be  tested.  And  whatever 
our  theological  apparatus  or  body  of  doctrine, 
or  devotional  helps  and  practices  may  be,  they 
all  should  have  for  their  end  the  production 
of  this  righteous  living  and  God-revering  life. 
This  is  that  which  God  supremely  desires  for 
men,  not  sacrifice  and  offering,  not  rites  and 
ceremonies,  but  holiness  of  heart  and  life ; 
and  all  the  work  of  God's  spiritual  kingdom 
is  directed  to  procuring  this  result.  Any  con- 
ception of  religion  which  does  not  include  this 
aim  as  its  essential  feature,  or  which  subordi- 
nates it  to  anything  else  whatever,  is  a  cari- 
cature or  contradiction  of  Christianity. 

If,  then,  any  one  would  locate  himself  with 
reference  to  God's  kingdom,  let  him  not  ask 
himself  whether  he  has  rehgion.  That  is  a 
question  of  no  importance.  It  is  no  matter 
whether  he  has  religion  or  not.  Neither  let 


84  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

him  ask  himself  concerning  his  rehgious  emo- 
tions. That  is  equally  an  irrelevant  question. 
Emotions  are  no  guide  whatever  to  character. 
They  depend  on  temperament,  time  of  life, 
and  are  profoundly  implicated  in  our  physical 
conditions.  A  prominent  physician  once  said 
he  had  never  known  a  case  of  triumphant 
death  when  the  disease  was  located  helow  the 
diaphragm.  But  let  the  inquirer  in  all  solem- 
nity ask  himself  whether  he  is  seeking  to 
please  God  by  doing  justly,  loving  mercy,  and 
walking  humbly  before  him ;  whether  in  life 
and  set  purpose  he  is  on  the  side  of  God,  and 
of  the  things  which  are  pleasing  in  God's 
sight.  This  question  goes  to  the  root  of  the 
matter,  cutting  through  all  illusions  and  hy- 
pocrisies, and  infallibly  locating  every  one, 
either  as  a  worker  of  righteousness  and  child 
of  the  kingdom,  or  as  a  worker  of  iniquity 
and  child  of  the  devil.  He  that  doeth  right- 
eousness is  rigfhteous.  He  that  committeth  sin 
is  of  the  devil.  This  was  St.  John's  verdict. 

Thus  I  have  sought  to  bring  out  into  clear- 
ness the  aim  in  religion  so  that  no  one  need 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  85 

wander  in  darkness  as  to  what  God  requires 
of  him,  and  also  so  that  no  one  may  mistake 
anything  for  religion  which  does  not  aim  at 
righteousness  as  the  essential  thing.  And  this 
we  should  bear  in  mind  both  in  our  judg- 
ments of  ourselves  and  in  our  guidance  of 
others.  This  will  not  indeed  remove  all  diffi- 
culties, but  it  will  remove  those  which  rest  on 
misunderstanding  and  lead  to  misdirected 
effort.  I  must  now  proceed  to  remove  various 
misconceptions  which  may  already  have  sprung 
up  in  some  minds.  Thus  it  may  be  urged  that 
I  have  said  nothing  about  the  need  of  divine 
help  and  the  atonement  and  the  forgiveness 
of  sins  and  faith  and  salvation  and  the  worth- 
lessness  of  our  good  works,  and  have  set  up  a 
scheme  of  mere  morality  which  ignores  all  the 
essential  features  of  the  Gospel.  It  would  not 
be  strange  if  such  objections  occurred  to  many 
minds  from  failure  to  distinguish  between  re- 
ligion and  theology,  or  between  the  religious 
aim  itself  and  the  conditions  of  realizing  it. 

Now  nothing  that  I  have  said  denies,  or 
is  intended  to  deny,  our  need  of  divine  help 


86  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

in  the  religious  life.  I  have  simply  sought  to 
set  forth  the  aim  of  that  life.  The  aim  is 
righteousness,  Godlikeness,  holiness  of  heart 
and  life.  In  securing  this  aim  the  divine  help 
is  most  assuredly  needed.  I  would  accept  all 
that  any  judicious  theology  has  ever  said 
about  our  dependence  on  God,  or  on  the 
Saviour,  or  on  the  Holy  Spirit  for  inspiration, 
for  enlightenment,  for  power  to  become  the 
Sons  of  God.  I  would  equally  accept  all  that 
might  be  said  in  repudiation  of  spiritual  boast- 
ing and  self -righteousness  on  our  part.  But 
this  does  not  affect  the  fact  that  what  we  need 
this  help  for  is  to  attain  to  righteous  living. 
Even  communion  with  God  is  for  the  sake  of 
righteolis  living ;  and  this  communion  is  pre- 
eminently through  righteous  living.  Any  pro- 
fession of  divine  communion  which  is  unrelated 
to  righteousness  and  does  not  lead  to  righteous- 
ness is  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  The  friendship 
of  the  Lord  is  with  them  that  fear  him,  but  if 
any  one  regard  iniquity  in  his  heart  the  Lord 
will  not  hear  him.  What  this  divine  help  may 
imply  and  how  it  may  be  attained  are  separate 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  87 

questions,  belonging  partly  to  theology  and 
partly  to  religious  pedagogics.  On  the  divine 
•  side  it  may  involve  a  special  divine  order  and 
economy.  On  the  human  side  it  may  involve 
prayer,  various  devotional  exercises  and  reh- 
gious  practices  according  to  the  mental  and 
spiritual  development ;  but  none  of  these 
things  are  ends  in  themselves.  Their  sole  value 
consists  in  helping  us  to  holiness  o£  heart  and 
life.  w 

The  atonement,  also,  is  an  important  doc- 
trine of  theology,  and,  rightly  conceived,  is 
one  of  the  great  inspirations  of  religion.  It 
is  a  statement  of  God's  great  love  and  conde- 
scension on  our  behalf,  and  is  the  supreme 
argument  for  love  and  obedience  on  our  part. 
But  it  is  not  a  scheme  for  excusing-  us  from 
righteous  living,  as  if  God  could  now  be  con- 
tent to  have  us  live  unrighteous  and  wicked 
lives.  This  interpretation  is  an  ancient  heresy 
which  the  church  has  always  condemned. 
Whatever  mysterious  Godward  relations  this 
doctrine  may  have  we  decide  not;  but  so  far 
as   conduct   is   concerned   it  is  God's  great 


88  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

dynamic  for  helping  us  to  lives  of  righteous- 
ness. It  alters  no  moral  principle  and  relaxes 
no  moral  demand.  These  are  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  forever,  as  changeless  as 
God  ;  and  their  obligation  is  binding  forever- 
more.  Hence  this  doctrine  does  not  change 
the  essential  aim  of  religion,  which  is  right- 
eousness. Christ  nowhere  excuses  his  disciples 
from  holy  living,  but  rather  makes  the  obliga- 
tion more  intimate  and  comprehensive  than 
ever.  Not  every  one  that  saith,  Lord,  Lord, 
enters  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  only 
he  that  doeth  God's  will. 

The  forgiveness  of  sins  likewise  is  an  im- 
portant doctrine  and  one  very  full  of  comfort, 
but  does  not  change  the  aim  of  religion, 
which  is  still  and  always  righteousness.  The 
forgiven  sinner  is  not  free  to  go  and  sin 
again  ;  he  is  bidden  to  go  and  sin  no  more. 

Faith  likewise  is  no  device  for  escaping  the 
duty  of  righteousness.  We  are  not  saved  by 
faith,  but  by  grace ;  and  faith  is  simply  yield- 
ing ourselves  up  in  self -surrender  to  the  di- 
vine grace  above  us,  which  seeks  our  moral 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  89 

purification  and  upbuilding.  It  is  the  very 
deepest  and  most  active  principle  of  obedience 
to  God's  will.  Faith,  if  faith,  must  work,  and 
it  must  work  righteousness.  Salvation,  too,  is 
essentially  a  salvation  from  unrighteous  liv- 
ing, not  from  penalties  only  or  chiefly.  It  is 
a  gross  misconception  to  think  of  salvation  as 
anything  but  a  salvation  from  sinning  and  a 
restoration  to  righteousness,  and  thus  to  God's 
favor. 

A  word  from  John  Wesley  may  fitly  come 
in  here.  In  a  letter  to  his  brother  Charles  he 
says :  "  But  of  all  preaching,  what  is  usually 
called  Gospel  preaching  is  the  most  useless  if 
not  the  most  mischievous,  a  dull,  yea,  a  lively, 
haranofue  on  the  sufferino^s  of  Christ  or  salva- 
tion  by  faith  without  sharply  inculcating  holi- 
ness. I  see  more  and  more  that  this  naturally 
tends  to  drive  holiness  out  of  the  world." 

When  we  speak  of  the  worthlessness  of  our 
good  works  much  depends  on  the  meaning. 
Good  works  may  mean  machine  piety,  as  in 
ancient  Pharisaism  or  mechanical  rites  of  me- 
dieval religion.  Such  good  works  are  worth- 


90  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

less,  of  course.  Or  good  works  may  mean  ex- 
ternal conformity  to  law  without  any  heart  in 
it.  Such  good  works  are  likewise  worthless, 
being  mere  legalism  rather  than  righteous- 
ness. This  is  about  what  is  meant  by  mere 
morality.  But  good  works  in  the  true  sense  of 
rio*hteousness  are  such  because  of  the  heart 
put  into  them.  They  spring  out  of  the  love 
of  righteousness  and  practical  devotion  to  it. 
In  this  sense  the  more  of  them  the  better ;  in 
this  sense  they  are  the  essential  thing.  To  fear 
God  and  work  righteousness  is  to  be  accepted 
of  him.  Hereby  we  know  that  we  know  him, 
that  we  keep  his  commandments.  If  any  man 
say  I  know  him,  and  keepeth  not  his  com- 
mandments, he  is  a  liar  and  the  truth  is  not 
in  him. 

While,  then,  the  various  doctrines  dwelt 
upon  are  true  and  in  their  place  important 
and  even  fundamental,  they  do  not  alter  the 
fact  that  what  God  requires  of  us  is  ever  and 
always  and  only  righteousness  of  heart  and 
life. 

The  life  of  man  is  a  very  complex  thing, 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  91 

and  our  human  needs  are  many.  The  feehng 
of  dependence  and  helplessness  growing  out 
of  the  vicissitudes  of  life  and  the  inexorable 
necessities  which  wall  us  in  on  every  side,  the 
feeling  of  awe  and  fear  springing  out  of  the 
impenetrable  mystery  and  uncertainties  of  our 
existence,  the  feeling  of  loneliness  and  or- 
phanage also  which  sometimes  comes  over  us 
in  the  deep  silence  of  the  universe,  the  heart 
wailing  over  and  after  its  dead,  the  intellect 
seeking  for  knowledge,  and  the  conscience 
huno^erinof  and  thirsting;  after  rig^hteousness 
—  all  of  these  thinj^s  enter  into  and  deter- 
mine  the  religious  manifestations  of  human- 
ity. The  Christian  teacher  will  always  have 
to  minister  to  more  than  the  conscience  of 
men.  He  must  bind  up  the  broken-hearted, 
strengthen  the  feeble  will,  and  bring  a  mes- 
sage of  hope  and  cheer  and  inspiration.  I 
would  not,  then,  be  understood  as  saying  that 

conduct  or  rio-hteousness  is  the  sum  of  reli- 
cs 

gion.  But  I  do  say  it  is  the  sum  of  God's 
demands  on  us,  and  it  is  the  central  thing  in 
our  relation  to  God.  Given  this,  our  religious 


92  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

life  may  unfold  in  various  ways  according  to 
our  special  experience,  or  peculiar  tempera- 
ment, or  the  demands  made  upon  us  by  our 
position  in  life ;  but  without  this  all  else  is 
dust  and  ashes  before  conscience  and  before 
God.  We  are  not  children  of  the  kingdom  be- 
cause we  are  filled  with  awe  before  the  mid- 
night heavens,  or  in  some  great  cathedral,  or 
at  some  magnificent  religious  service.  We  are 
not  children  of  the  kingdom  because  we  are 
thrilled  or  melted  by  religious  music,  or  de- 
light in  devotional  exercises,  or  are  emotion- 
ally moved  by  religious  contemplation.  All  of 
these  things  are  possible  without  one  spark  of 
loyalty  to  God  or  love  to  man.  We  are  chil- 
dren of  the  kingdom,  if  at  all,  because  we  are 
bent  on  doinof  the  will  of  God. 

And  the  time  has  come  for  making  this 
view  prominent  in  the  life  of  the  church.  The 
gradual  development  of  intelligence  and  con- 
science has  brought  about  the  necessity  for  a 
readjustment  in  religion.  The  high-pressure 
emotional  religion  affected  by  the  individualist 
churches  of  past  generations  is  passing  away. 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  93 

The  chanjred  intellectual  and  moral  atmos- 
pliere  is  fast  making  it  impossible.  Some  who 
cannot  discern  the  signs  of  the  times  are  still 
striving  to  stir  the  old  fervors,  but  the  failure 
is  becoming  more  and  more  abject.  At  the 
best  we  have  galvanism  rather  than  life,  echo 
instead  of  a  living  voice.  Men  are  growing 
tired  of  the  hunt  after  emotions  and  of  the 
barren  inspection  of  their  spiritual  states. 
The  world  also  is  demanding  fruit  of  religion  {^ 

and  testing  it  by  its  fruits  —  fruits  of  enthu- 
siasm for  humanity  and  the  bettering  of  the 
world.  And  this  does  not  imply  that  men  are 
becoming  less  religious,  but  that  religion  is 
takins:  on  another  and  better  form.  And  the 
line  of  progress  lies  in  the  direction  of  aban- 
doning these  unwholesome  subjectivities  and 
takinof  men  out  of  their  selfish  schemes  of 
salvation,  and  putting  upon  them  the  positive 
task  of  setting  up  and  realizing  the  kingdom 
of  God,  which  is  the  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness, upon  the  earth.  If  this  be  first  and  es- 
sential all  other  things  will  be  added,  and  the 
religious  life  will  become  both  sane  and  fruit- 


94  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

f ul.  Emotions  will  spring  from  ideas  and  will 
be  natural  and  unforced ;  and  that  air  of  un- 
reality and  artificiality  which  pervades  so  much 
religious  speech  will  disappear. 

It  is  often  said  that  we  need  a  "  revival  of 
religion."  I  quite  agree  if  by  this  be  meant  a 
revival  of  righteousness,  but  I  stoutly  disagree 
if  anything  else  be  meant.  We  have  religion 
enough  of  the  sort  that  does  not  lead  to 
righteous  living,  or  that  is  a  social  fashion,  or 
a  matter  of  taste,  or  a  sentimental  contempla- 
tion, or  an  external  form  or  ceremony.  Holi- 
ness of  heart  and  life  is  the  great  need  of  the 
world  and  the  supreme  demand  of  God ;  and 
the  supreme  aim  of  the  church  must  be  the 
building  up  of  righteous  character  in  its  mem- 
bers and  realizing  righteousness  in  the  com- 
munity. After  this  is  provided  for  we  may 
consider  the  claims  of  taste  and  art  and  cere- 
mony and  liturgy  ;  but  until  this  is  provided 
for,  the  church  can  only  be  an  abomination 
unto  the  Lord  and  a  scoff  amons:  thoug-htful 
men. 

I  close  by  renewing  a  suggestion  made  early 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  95 

ill  the  sermon.  It  is  that  we  cease  talking  about 
relio'ion  and  talk  about  ri<>hteousness  instead. 
Religion  is  a  very  complex  thing,  as  complex 
and  multiform  as  humanity.  Historically,  it 
belongs  to  the  natural  history  of  humanity, 
and  like  humanity  itself,  it  needs  to  be  moral- 
ized and  spiritualized  if  it  is  to  reach  its  per- 
fect form.  But,  as  before  said,  we  are  not 
called  upon  to  be  religious ;  we  are  under  no 
obliofation  to  be  religious.  There  is  no  com- 
mandment  anywhere  to  that  effect.  But  we 
are  called  upon  to  be  righteous,  to  fear  God 
and  keep  his  commandments,  to  love  God  and 
man ;  and  a  blessing  is  pronounced  upon  them 
that  hung-er  and  thirst  after  rio-liteousness. 
This  and  this  only  is  religion  in  the  Christian 
sense.  Keligions  are  various;  emotions  change; 
piety  is  often  parti-colored ;  but  the  set  pur- 
pose to  do  the  will  of  God  is  the  same  forever. 

"  Let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter.  Fear  God  and  keep  his  command- 
ments, for  this  is  the  whole  duty  of  man." 

"  Hereby  we  know  that  we  know  him,  if 
we  keep  his  commandments.  If  any  man  say, 


96  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

I  know  him,  and  keepeth  not  his  command- 
ments, he  is  a  liar,  and  the  truth  is  not  in 
him." 

"  He  hath  shewed  thee,  0  man,  what  is 
good ;  and  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of 
thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and 
to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?  " 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE   KINGDOM 
OF  GOD 


V 

THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    KINGDOM    OF   GOD 

What  I  have  to  say  upon  this  subject  is  the 
distinct  teaching  of  no  single  text  or  set  of 
texts  ;  it  is  rather  the  outcome  of  Christian 
thought  and  history.  I  read,  however,  several 
texts,  not  so  much  as  the  foundations  of  my 
discourse  as,  rather,  indications  of  the  line  of 
thought. 

Thus,  John  10 :  16  :  "  Other  sheep  I  have, 
which  are  not  of  this  fold :  them  also  I  must 
bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice;  and 
they  shall  become  one  flock,  one  shepherd." 
Here  the  universalism  of  Christianity  appears. 
There  are  many  sheep  and  many  folds  ;  but 
withal  there  is  one  flock  and  one  shepherd. 

Again,  Acts  10  :  34-35  :  "  Of  a  truth  I  per- 
ceive that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons  ; 
but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  him  and 
worketh  righteousness  is  acceptable  to  him." 
Here  we  have  the  declaration  that  righteous- 


100  THE  ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

ness  is  righteousness  everywhere,  and  every- 
where and  from  every  one  is  acceptable  to 
God. 

And  finally,  1  Tim.  3 :  15  :  "  The  church 
of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and  ground  of 
the  truth."  Here  we  have  a  suggestion  of  the 
great  practical  importance  of  the  church. 

The  kingdom  of  God  and  the  equivalent 
phrase,  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  often  have 
the  same  meaning  as  the  church,  in  the  New 
Testament  use.  In  the  gospels  the  kingdom 
is  more  frequently  spoken  of ;  in  the  epistles 
the  church  is  the  more  common  term.  The 
kinofdom  is  mentioned  one  hundred  and  twelve 
times  in  the  gospels,  and  the  church  only 
twice.  In  the  epistles  the  reverse  is  the  case. 
The  kingdom  is  rarely  referred  to,  while  the 
church  is  often  spoken  of.  But  both  terms 
refer  to  the  same  spiritual  society,  in  which 
the  doing  of  God's  will  and  the  realizing  of 
his  gracious  and  righteous  purposes,  or  the 
realizing  the  divine  life  in  man  and  society,  is 
the  supreme  aim.  But  these  questions  concern- 
ing; the  orio;in  and  relation  of  the  terms  need 


'O    "     ^     ^'^'^O' 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    101 

not  detain  us.  The  kingdom  was  the  original 
conception,  but  from  the  circumstances  at- 
tending the  spread  of  Christianity,  the  notion 
of  the  church  became  predominant.  And  now 
after  many  centuries  other  historical  circum- 
stances are  carrying  us  back  to  the  conception 
of  the  kingdom  again  as  the  basal  and  essen- 
tial one.  Churches  are  many;  the  kingdom  is 
one.  Churches  at  best  are  instrumental  only, 
the  kingdom  is  the  supreme  end  itself.  If  the 
kingdom  were  here,  we  might  not  need  the 
churches ;  but  the  churches  without  the  king- 
dom would  be  a  barren  mockery.  Hence  it  is 
that  the  conception  of  the  kingdom  is  so  fast 
replacing  that  of  the  church  in  the  Christian 
thought  of  to-day.  Let  us  now  inquire  first 
what  the  kingdom  is,  or  what  it  aims  to  do. 

When  our  Lord  taught  the  disciples  to  pray, 
he  put  as  the  first  petition,  "  Thy  kingdom 
come " ;  and  what  this  might  mean  is  ex- 
plained in  the  following  words,  "  Thy  will  be 
done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  In  our  un- 
spiritual  way  of  thinking  we  are  apt  to  fancy 
that  the  coming  of  God's  kingdom  would  be 


102     '        THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 
some  sort  of  spectacular  manifestation  in  the 
heavens  above  and  the  earth  beneath,  with  all 
manner  of  scenic  glories  for  the  delight  of 
wonder-loving  minds,  and  with  complete  ces- 
sation of  all  need  of  labor.    But  such  a  per- 
formance at  best  would  be  only  a  celestial 
circus,  and  would  be  unworthy  of  God  and 
damaging  to  men.   The  real  coming  of  the 
kingdom  would  mean  that  men  were  loving 
God  with   all  their   hearts  and  their  neigh- 
bors  as   themselves.    This   is  what  it  would 
mean  in  principle.  In  application  to  this  hfe 
it  would  next  mean  that  this  principle  of  love 
was  being  specified  into  the  highest  and  com- 
pletest  forms  of  human  life  upon  the  earth, 
until  man  and  society  and  all  social  and  polit- 
ical forms  and  agencies  and  activities  had  been 
made  perfect  and  brought  into  ideal  complete- 
ness. Perfect  love  within   must  find  perfect 
expression  in  the  human  world  without.    The 
principle  of  the  kingdom  is  love,  but  the  field 
of  this  love's  manifestation  is  life ;  and  this 
life  must  be  built  into  ideal  form.    Mere  good 
intentions  alone  would  not  suffice ;  for  they 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    103 

might  be  thwarted  by  ignorance,  disease,  social 
and  industrial  inefficiency,  and  a  low  grade 
of  development  in  general.  Love  must  be 
guided  by  right  reason,  and  both  must  liave 
a  vigorous  life  behind  t^jem,  or  under  their 
control. 

Thus  we  escape  the  error  of  the  unspiritu- 
ally-minded  who  would  find  the  kingdom  in 
some  mechanical  and  spectacular  manifesta- 
tion ;  and  we  also  escape  the  error  of  those 
who  would  find  the  kingdom  in  the  abstract 
salvation  of  abstract  souls  without  any  essen- 
tial relation  to  the  work  and  interests  of  the 
life  that  now  is.  The  view  set  forth  escapes 
both  of  these  errors ;  and  it  is  fast  bringing 
both  illumination  and  inspiration  into  Chris- 
tian thought.  There  is  no  sign  of  the  times 
more  promising  than  this,  that  Christians  are 
coming  to  see  as  never  before  their  responsi- 
bility for  the  right  ordering  and  development 
of  the  present  life.  Christian  conscience  and 
Christian  energy  are  gradually  turning  to  this 
field;  and  from  this  fact  we  may  expect  a 
more  efficient  form  of  religion  than  any  we 


104  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

have  yet  known.  The  Pharisee  with  his  ex- 
ternahsm,  andJohn  the  Baptist  with  his  ascetic 
detachment  from  life,  will  give  place  to  the 
Son  of  Man,  who  sanctified  all  human  duties 
and  relations  by  importing  heavenly  principles 
into  them,  and  who  in  all  things  was  about 
his  Father's  business. 

The  kingdom  is  built  upon  the  good  news  of 
God  which  our  Lord  first  fully  and  finally  pro- 
claimed ;  and  the  aim  of  the  kingdom  is  to 
realize  the  will  of  God.  Thus  there  arises  in 
our  thought  the  conception  of  a  great  spiritual 
society,  transcending  earthly  distinctions  and 
above  all  political  organizations,  a  society  whose 
citizenship  is  forever  in  the  heavens,  being  hid 
with  Christ  in  God,  yet  whose  present  sphere 
of  activity  is  upon  the  earth,  and  whose  mem- 
bers are  united  in  the  high  purpose  of  doing 
the  will  of  the  Highest,  and  thus  bringing 
in  the  divine  kingdom.  Thus  our  thought 
stretches  away  to  the  great  multitude  that  no 
man  can  number,  who  have  passed  into  the 
heavens,  but  who  still  remain  members  of  the 
society,  and  are  still  engaged  in  doing  the  will 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    105 

of  God.  And  then  our  thought  rises  to  all  the 
fii'st-born  sous  of  light, "  the  great  Intelligences 
fair,"  who  also  belong  to  the  kingdom  and 
who  know  no  higher  law  than  the  will  of 
God. 

Let  us  next  inquire  who  are  the  members  or 
subjects  of  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth. 

Traditional  thought  upon  this  subject  is 
the  outcome  partly  of  traditional  doctrines 
concerning  the  church,  and  partly  of  an  ab- 
stract theological  plan  of  salvation.  The  for- 
mer gives  us  sacerdotalism,  state  churches,  and 
religious  mechanism  in  general.  In  this  view 
the  spiritual  element  is  overlooked  and  no- 
thing is  left  but  magic  and  superstition.  The 
other  factor  gives  us  an  abstract  order  of  sal- 
vation, to  be  followed  with  all  the  exactness 
of  a  statutory  formula  if  we  would  enter  into 
life.  This  view  is  as  mechanical  as  the  former, 
though  in  a  different  way.  Both  alike  remain 
in  the  letter  and  grievously  miss  the  spirit. 

It  was  very  natural,  almost  necessary,  under 
the  circumstances,  that  the  kingdom  should  be 
confounded  with  the  visible  church.  It  required 


106  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

some  experience  and  some  development  of 
spiritual  insight  to  discern  the  spiritual  nature 
of  the  kingdom.  Hence  the  very  general  con- 
clusion that  only  church  members  belong  to 
the  kingdom ;  and  hence  again  the  very  gen- 
eral idea  that  the  conditions  of  church  mem- 
bership and  the  formal  rites  for  admission  to 
the  church  are  necessary  for  admission  to  the 
kingdom  of  God.  This  gave  rise  to  a  swarm 
of  notions,  always  grotesque  and  unspiritual 
and  sometimes  frantic  and  insane,  respecting 
baptism  and  other  rites,  all  of  which  notions 
rested  at  bottom  on  the  fancy  that  God  is  a 
stickler  for  etiquette,  and  cares  for  little  else 
in  comparison.  But  such  notions  are  fast  dis- 
appearing as  spiritual  reflection  deepens.  Expe- 
rience has  shown  that  one  may  be  a  recipient 
of  all  the  ordinances  and  at  the  same  time  have 
full  membership  in  the  synagogue  of  Satan ; 
while  others,  like  the  Good  Samaritan,  who 
have  not  shared  in  the  ordinances  are  yet  dis- 
ciples of  Christ  and  children  of  God  through 
the  affinities  of  their  spirits.  Our  Lord  him- 
self recognized  this.    He  spoke  of  the  tares 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    107 

among  the  wheat,  and  also  of  the  other  sheep 
•who  are  not  o£  this  fold,  but  who  are  never- 
theless his  sheep.  He  also  said  many  should 
come  from  the  East  and  West  and  sit  down 
with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  while  the  nominal  sons  of 
the  kingdom  should  be  cast  out.  On  another 
occasion  he  rebuked  the  disciples  for  interfer- 
ing with  an  outsider  who  was  doing  good,  and 
said,  He  that  is  not  against  us  is  on  our  part. 
Jesus  thought  of  what  the  man  was  doing; 
and  he  saw  that  he  was  doing  his  kind  of  work, 
the  work  he  himself  would  do.  Peter  also,  in 
our  second  text,  declares  that  in  every  nation 
he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness is  acceptable  to  him.  A  portion  of  the 
Spirit,  we  are  told,  is  given  to  every  man  to 
profit  withal ;  and  there  is  a  light  that  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  Here 
the  teaching  is  plain  that  there  is  a  work  of 
grace  that  extends  beyond  the  visible  Chris- 
tian limits,  and  there  are  sheep  beyond  the 
visible  fold. 

Membership  in   the  kingdom,  then,   does 


108  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

not  depend  on  rites  and  ceremonies,  nor  even 
upon  a  knowledge  of  Christian  truth,  but  upon 
the  attitude  and  affinities  of  the  spirit.    Of 
course,  that  which  is  perfect  in  spiritual  Hving 
cannot  come  until  there  is   a  knowledge  of 
the  Gospel.    This  alone  gives  the  necessary 
illumination   and  inspiration ;   and  we  must 
seek  to  bring  this  knowledge  to  every  one  and 
to  bring  every  one  to  the  apprehension  and 
appropriation  of  this  knowledge.  But  the  spir- 
itual principle  may  exist  apart  from  it.  Those 
who  not  having  the  law  yet  do  by  nature  the 
thinofs  contained  in  the  law,  those  others  in 
every  Christian  community  who  without  being 
nominally  Christians  are  yet  doing  the  kind  of 
work  Christ  wants  done,  and  are  working  in  his 
spirit,  certainly  belong  to  the  kingdom.  They 
may  have  come  very  imperfectly,  or  not  at  all, 
into  the  knowledge  of  Christian  truth;  they 
may  not  have  attained  to  any  reflective  and 
conscious  piety,  and  may  thus  need  to  be  taught 
the  way  of  God  more  perfectly,  but  they  have 
the  root  of  the  matter  in  them  because  they 
are  living  in  the  Christ  spirit.  Surely  the  Good 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    109 

Samaritan  was  a  member  of  the  kingdom.  Of 
course  he  knew  nothing  of  Christ,  but  Christ 
knew  something  of  him.  And  with  equal  cer- 
tainty the  priest  and  the  Levite  were  not  mem- 
bers of  the  kingdom.  They  may  have  had  high 
standing  in  the  temple,  but  they  had  not  the 
spirit  of  Christ.  The  Samaritan  was  an  outcast 
from  the  temple,  but  he  had  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
One  must  be  mentally  and  morally  debauched 
by  a  mechanical  theology  who  can  doubt  that 
the  Samaritan  belonged  to  the  kingdom  and 
the  others  did  not.  The  twenty-fifth  chapter 
of  Matthew  is  suggestive  reading  in  this  re- 
gard. It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity  that  its 
spirit  is  transcending  its  own  formal  institu- 
tions. The  Lord  Jesus  has  many  an  unrecog- 
nized and  unconscious  disciple  in  lodges,  in 
labor  organizations,  in  industrial  and  social 
brotherhoods,  in  philanthropic  and  reform  so- 
cieties. And  while  he  would  bringr  them  into 
a  better  knowledge  of  himself,  he  would  not 
forbid  them  in  any  way  the  work  they  are  doing. 
Thus  the  leaven,  according  to  the  promise, 
is  leavening  the  lump. 


110  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

Everywhere  the  letter  killeth,  but  nowhere 
else  has  it  been   so   sadly  fatal   as    at   this 
point.    The  un spiritually-minded  have   natu- 
rally sought  some  test  of  membership  in  the 
kingdom  less  exigent  than  the  spirit  of  Christ ; 
and  the  mechanically-minded  have  painfully 
scanned  the  letter  in  a  mechanical  way  without 
penetrating  to  the  spirit  at  all.  But  texts  with- 
out the  spirit  only  leave  us  in  confusion  ;  and 
when  we  have  the  spirit  we  can  manage  some 
things  without  texts.  Who  can  enter  into  the 
thought  of  the  Heavenly  Father  as  our  Lord 
revealed  him,  the  God  who  loved  and  loves  the 
world,  and  need  a  text  to  tell  him  that  the 
babies  are  safe  in  his  arms,  that  the  lack  of 
some  external  rite  would  not  mean  damnation, 
and  that  the  heathen  world  is  not  turned  over 
to  indiscriminate  perdition  ?  And  what  shall 
we  say  of  those  other  mechanical  minds  who 
in  their  fear  of  natural  goodness   hold  that 
nothing  is  good  in  humanity  until  it  acts  in 
full  view  of  the  gospel  plan  and  literally  goes 
throuo:h  the  order  of  salvation  with  all  the  me- 
chanical  literalness  of  a  recipe  ?  That  is  not 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    111 

the  way  our  Father  deals  with  us.  We  are  in 
our  Father's  hands  and  heart ;  and  he  is  bear- 
ino-  with  us  and  training  us  to  be  his  spiritual 
children.  And  goodness  everywhere  is  good  ; 
and  frrace  is  ever  at  its  source.  When  we  rise 
to  the  full  thought  o£  Christianity,  we  can  see 
that  the  whole  world  is  under  the  government 
of  the  Father  in  the  Son.  The  Son  it  is  by 
whom  are  all  things  and  for  whom  are  all 
thinofs.  He  is  at  once  the  source  and  o^oal  of 
our  life.  The  deeper  we  penetrate  into  the  high- 
est views  of  God  and  his  purposes  the  better, 
neither  can  that  which  is  perfect  come  until 
we  have  entered  into  some  apprehension  of  the 
good  news  of  the  Gospel;  yet  we  must  hold  that 
all  true  goodness  is  moving  Godward,  though 
men  may  be  at  different  stages  on  the  road, 
and  may  not  know  the  origin  or  the  goal  of 
their  movement.  A  vast  amount  of  historical 
theology  has  drifted  away,  not  because  of  bet- 
ter grammar  and  exegesis,  but  because  the 
growing  insight  of  the  Christian  community 
into  the  mind  of  Christ  has  made  it  impos- 
sible. 


112  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

Thus  we  come  to  the  conception  of  a  great 
spiritual  society  of  the  children  of  God.  It  in- 
cludes the  good  of  every  faith  and  age  and 
clime,  in  this  world  or  in  any  other.  It  includes 
all  those  who  are  in  training  for  goodness  ;  all 
in  short  but  the  children  of  disobedience. 
These  are  on  their  way  to  the  outer  darkness. 
But  this  kingdom  is  not  always  and  every- 
where manifested  with  equal  clearness  and 
power.  The  proclamation  of  the  kingdom  in 
its  true  nature  and  principles  was  first  made 
by  our  Lord,  and  our  thought  of  it  centres 
around  him.  We  may  rightly  say  then  that  the 
king-dom  first  came  on  earth  with  him  :  for  in 
comparison  with  his  work  and  revelation  the 
kinofdom  had  not  come  before  ;  and  it  comes 
now  with  any  richness  and  fullness  only  in  con- 
nection with  him.  Likewise  in  the  individual 
life,  while  all  goodness  is  divine  and  a  mark  of 
the  spirit's  presence,  the  life  must  become  re- 
flective and  rise  into  self-conscious  surrender 
to  the  hiofhest  before  it  can  reach  its  ideal 
form ;  and  this  again  is  possible  only  in  con- 
nection with  the  kingdom  as  our  Lord  has  re- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    113 

vealed  it.  It  has  not  been  my  purpose  then,  in 
extending  the  kingdom  to  take  in  goodness 
everywhere,  even  its  embryonic  and  uncon- 
scious forms,  in  any  way  to  deny  the  supreme 
preeminence  of  our  Lord,  or  the  importance 
of  a  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  life  of  the  king^dom. 

We  now  pass  to  consider  the  relation  of  the 
visible  church  to  the  kingdom. 

All  things  "whatsoever  stand  in  the  all-en- 
folding love  and  fatherhood  of  God ;  and  the 
essential  aim  of  this  love  is  to  awaken  filial 
love  in  return,  that  thus  the  divine  love  may 
bestow  itself  in  endless  blessing  upon  us. 
This  implies  a  personal  relation  between  the 
soul  and  God  which  can  never  be  assumed  by 
any  one  for  any  other.  Before  the  kingdom 
can  fully  come  in  any  soul,  there  must  be  this 
personal  and  filial  response  to  the  divine  grace. 
Only  thus  can  we  fully  possess  the  regenerate 
character  and  consciousness.  No  institution 
can  do  this  work  for  us.  No  person  can  do  it 
for  us.  Institutions  may  produce  helpful  con. 
ditions.  Other  persons  may  educate,  influence, 


114  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

persuade.  But  when  all  they  can  do  is  done, 
there  remains  the  act  of  the  individual  him- 
self, which  alone  can  ratify  and  complete  all 
that  divine  or  human  love  and  institutions 
have  done  or  can  do.  The  individual  is  the 
logical  presupposition  of  the  church  as  he  is 
of  the  state.  We  might  conceivably  have  holy 
men  and  women  apart  from  any  church,  but  a 
church  without  holy  men  and  women  would 
be  either  an  abstraction  or  a  synagogue  of 
Satan. 

All  sacerdotal  theories  of  the  church  are 
set  aside  by  the  spiritual  nature  and  aim  of 
Christianity.  This  aim  is  not  to  effect  a  me- 
chanical and  external  salvation,  but  to  produce 
a  spiritual  transformation  so  that  Christ  may 
be  formed  or  reproduced  in  us.  The  church  is 
not  an  end  in  itself,  neither  has  it  any  magical 
or  mysterious  powers.  It  is  purely  instrumen- 
tal for  the  interests  of  the  kingdom  or  the 
believers  that  compose  it,  and  its  value  lies 
solely  in  its  service. 

When  in  political  science  we  speak  of  the 
government,  we  do  not  mean  any  particular 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD   115 

government,  but  the  social  organization  for 
the  control  of  individuals,  so  as  to  secure  the 
best  good  of  all.  So  when  we  speak  of  the 
church,  we  do  not  mean  any  existing  ecclesias- 
tical organization,  but  religious  organization 
in  general,  which  aims  to  unite  and  help  men 
in  the  spiritual  life.  Now  in  the  sense  of  or- 
ganized religion  the  church  is  a  most  impor- 
tant institution  with  most  important  functions. 
As  man  is  a  social  being,  his  religion  must  be 
social  also.  An  -unsocial  religion,  if  it  could 
exist,  would  be  a  triumph  of  selfishness,  not 
of  love.  As  men  in  cooperation  are  vastly 
more  effective  than  working  in  isolation,  so 
their  religion  must  be  cooperative  for  the 
greatest  effectiveness.  As  the  fusing  of  indi- 
vidual opinions  into  one  great  public  opinion 
gives  them  vastly  increased  power  and  greatly 
strengthens  the  individual  opinion  itself,  so 
the  same  process  in  the  religious  life  gives 
our  religious  convictions  multiplied  force  and 
efficiency.  As  in  the  nation  men  die,  but  insti- 
tutions remain  as  the  form  and  guarantee  of 
the  continuity  of  national  life,  so  in  the  re- 


116  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

ligious  community  an  institution  is  needed  to 
tind  men  together  in  a  eommon  aim  and 
spirit,  and  to  abide  across  the  coming  and 
going  of  the  individuals,  thus  assuring  the 
continuity  of  the  religious  life  in  the  world. 
It  is  in  facts  of  this  kind  that  the  church  as 
the  social  organization  of  religion  has  its  root 
and  origin  ;  and  it  appears  as  necessary  under 
these  circumstances  as  the  analogous  political 
organization  of  men.  We  need  not  much  con- 
cern ourselves  to  find  a  technical  and  verbal 
warrant  for  either  church  or  state.  They  are 
so  manifestly  founded  in  the  nature  of  things, 
that  they  need  no  further  foundation.  As  the- 
individual  cannot  be  himself  apart  from  the 
state,  so  the  individual  in  religion  is  helpless 
apart  from  the  church.  As  the  political  indi- 
vidual in  isolation  could  never  put  forth  those 
great  activities  needed  for  the  development 
and  triumph  of  humanity,  so  the  religious  in- 
dividual in  isolation  would  be  utterly  inade- 
quate to  the  great  efforts  needed  for  the  con- 
quest of  the  world  for  righteousness.  For  this 
there  is  needed  organized  and  corporate  work 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    117 

for  massino:  the  isolated  forces  of  individuals, 
and  bringing  them  to  bear  in  joint  and  abid- 
ing witness  for  truth  and  righteousness  and  in 
joint  and  abiding  effort  against  untruth  and 
unriohteousness  in  the  world.  If  there  were 
not  a  single  text  in  Scripture  on  the  subject, 
it  would  be  no  less  necessary  and  no  less  divine 
than  it  is,  as  founded  on  the  text  of  history 
and   humanity.  Thus   it  is  that   the    church 
becomes  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth. 
It  is  the  institution  which  brings  the  individ- 
ual out  of  his  isolation  and  weakness,  and  reen- 
forces  him  by  all  those  forces  which  root  in 
the  social  nature.  It  is  a  perpetual  testimony 
to  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  and  his  divine 
affinities,  a  relationship  which  the  sense  life  is 
perpetually  obscuring.  It  is  the  great  teacher 
concerning  the  things  of  the  spirit.  Here  the 
divine  tradition  of   divine   love  is   cherished 
and  made  credible.  Here  the  high  and  the  low, 
the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  wise  and  the  igno- 
rant meet  together  in  the  love  of  one  Lord 
who  is  the  Maker  and  Head  of  them  all.  Here 
too  the  spiritual  forces  of  humanity  centre. 


118  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

Here  is  a  great  universal  confederation  for 
spiritual  purposes,  and,  through  them,  for  all 
other  purposes  that  look  to  man's  upbuilding, 
freed  from  limitations  of  race  and  nation  and 
condition,  and  bound  by  a  common  love  to  a 
common  work  toward  a  common  aim,  and  that 
the  highest.  Surely  this  institution  is  rightly 
called  the  pillar  and  the  ground  of  the  truth. 
Both  the  church  and  the  state  are  divine 
institutions  in  this  sense,  that  they  are  mani- 
festly necessary  to  the  best  life  of  man  in  their 
respective  fields ;  and  hence  whoever  rejects 
them  shows  at  least  a  want  of  insight  into  hu- 
man needs  and  conditions.  This  manifest  fact 
of  experience  is  as  true  and  divine  a  warrant 
as  any  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  "  could  be.  But 
a  similar  blunder  has  been  committed  in  the 
case  of  each  of  these  institutions.  Because  some 
form  of  social  authority  over  the  individual  is 
a  manifest  necessity,  hence  a  part  of  the  di- 
vine order,  it  has  been  concluded  that  a  given 
government  exists  by  divine  right,  and  that  to 
resist  it  is  to  rebel  against  God.  This  fallacy 
held  sway  for  a  long  time  and  is  still  cherished 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    119 

by  some  royal  families.  It  took  several  politi- 
cal revolutions  to  expose  the  logic.  Again,  it 
was  held  that  these  governments  and  governors 
having  their  commission  to  rule  directly  from 
Heaven,  they  were  not  responsible  to  any 
earthly  powers.  Accordingly  the  claim  that 
all  governments  derive  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed  was  viewed  as  a 
grave  political  heresy.  Yet  gradually  it  has 
become  an  article  of  political  faith.  We  now 
see  that  the  fact  of  social  authority  over  the 
individual,  which  is  the  essence  of  govern- 
ment, is  no  warrant  for  this  or  that  particular 
government,  unless  that  government  conserves 
the  interests  of  the  governed.  We,  the  people, 
while  recognizing  the  need  for  social  authority, 
do  not  for  a  moment  doubt  our  full  right  to 
criticise  any  actual  government  and  to  change 
it  also  so  as  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  the 
best  interests  of  all.  Government  is  an  ideal, 
and  nowhere  exists  in  its  purity.  Only  concrete 
governments  exist,  and  these  often  have  a 
notable  parallax  with  the  ideal. 

A  similar  error  has  existed  with  regard  to 


120  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

the  church.  Because  some  form  of  religious 
orgcanization  must  exist  for  the  conservation 
and  expression  of  Christian  truth  and  doc- 
trine, for  the  education  and  reenforcement  of 
the  individual,  and  for  the  uniting  of  the 
many  into  one  agency  for  the  furtherance  of 
righteousness  and  the  repression  and  over- 
throw of  iniquity,  it  has  been  concluded  that 
that  one  organization  is  the  church,  and  that 
all  others,  no  matter  how  much  the  grace  of 
God  may  abound  in  them  or  how  manifest  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit  may  be  among  their  mem- 
bers, have  no  claim  to  the  name  of  the  church. 
This  is  the  precise  parallel  of  the  fallacy  in 
political  philosophy  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering. The  ideal  church,  like  the  ideal 
government,  does  not  exist.  Only  particular 
churches  exist ;  and  no  one  of  these  is  the 
church  more  than  any  other.  They  are  all 
the  church  of  Christ  in  so  far,  and  only  in  so 
far,  as  they  have  his  spirit  and  do  his  work ; 
and  they  derive  all  their  value  and  authority 
from  their  demonstrated  efficiency  in  building 
up  and  maintaining  the  spiritual  life  of  men. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    121 

The  kingdom  is  one  ;  church  organizations  are 
many,  and  their  value  lies  in  their  furtherance 
of  the  kingdom.  A  body  of  believers  suddenly 
transplanted  to  some  uninhabited  land,  with- 
out priest  or  bishop,  could  found  as  true  a 
church  as  ever  existed,  if  the  spirit  of  God 
were  among  them. 

We  distinguish  then  the  ideal  church,  or 
the  kingdom,  from  any  and  all  ecclesiastical 
organizations.  We  recognize  no  divinely  insti- 
tuted ecclesiastical  body,  no  divinely  dictated 
and  fixed  polity,  but  solely  the  one  bond  of 
union  with  Christ  and  of  loyalty  to  him. 
Wherever  this  is  present  in  any  religious  body 
we  have  the  church ;  and  wherever  it  is  absent 
we  have  no  church  of  Christ.  Thus  unity  of 
the  Spirit  is  the  great  and  essential  thing. 
The  ecclesiastical  forms  it  shall  take  on  are 
matters  to  be  decided  by  circumstances  viewed 
in  the  light  of  experience. 

The  true  church  even  on  earth  does  not 
consist  of  the  various  ecclesiastical  bodies,  but 
of  the  spiritual  disciples  of  our  Lord,  whether 
in  these  bodies  or  outside  of  them.  Neverthe- 


122  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

less,  the  question  of  church  organization,  while 
subordinate,  is  by  no  means  unimportant.  Or- 
ganization may  help,  and  it  may  hinder.  There 
is  need  of  wisdom  here  also.  It  is  beyond  all 
question  that  if  existing  ecclesiastical  bodies 
were  removed  and  living  disciples  were  left 
free  to  reorganize  the  churches,  there  would 
be  a  very  great  change  in  present  conditions. 
Comparatively  few  existing  bodies  could  pos- 
sibly begin  again  in  the  present  condition  of 
Christian  thought.  The  petty  sects,  founded 
on  petty  quibbles  and  living  in  petty  rivalry, 
have  become  an  offense  to  the  Christian  heart 
and  conscience,  and  will  slowly  disappear.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  due  regard  being  had  to 
human  nature  as  revealed  in  history,  few 
thoughtful  persons  would  look  without  fore- 
boding on  any  plan,  if  it  were  possible,  to 
unite  all  Christendom  under  one  ecclesiastical 
dominion.  Fortunately  such  a  trust  is  impos- 
sible. The  one  thing  needful  is  the  unity  of 
the  Spirit,  and  this  is  by  no  means  always 
secured  by  a  common  outward  organization. 
The  one  thing:  desirable  in  the  case  of  these 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD    123 

larger  bodies  is  that  they  should  recognize  one 
another's  Christian  aim  and  effort,  and  refrain 
from  mutually  damaging  rivalries  in  every 
field.  But  let  them  rival  one  another  in  love 
and  zeal  for  the  kingdom,  stirring  one  another 
up  to  good  works  and  rejoicing  that  Christ  is 
preached,  no  matter  by  whom,  and  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  growing  among  men. 

And  now  in  closing-  let  us  raise  our  thoue^ht 
to  the  church  invisible,  the  kingdom  in  its 
glorious  majesty,  including  not  only  the  faith- 
ful living  but  also  the  faithful  dead,  the  gen- 
eral assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born,  and 
the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect,  freed  from 
all  earthly  limitations  and  weakness,  and  set 
forever  in  the  midst  of  the  unwearying  activ- 
ities, the  glorious  living,  the  glorious  loving, 
and  all  the  ineffable  and  divine  revealings  of 
the  life  immortal. 


VI 
PRAYER 


VI 


PRAYER 

And  he  said  unto  them,  Which  of  you  shall  have  a  friend,  and 
ahall  go  unto  him  at  midnight,  and  say  unto  him,  Friend,  lend  me 
three  loaves  ;  for  a  friend  of  mine  in  his  journey  is  come  to  me, 
and  I  have  nothing  to  set  before  him.  And  he  from  within  shall 
answer  and  say.  Trouble  me  not ;  the  door  is  now  shut,  and  my 
children  are  with  me  in  bed ;  I  cannot  rise  and  give  thee.  I  say 
unto  you,  Though  he  will  not  rise  and  give  him  because  he  is 
hia  friend,  yet  because  of  his  importunity  he  will  rise  and  give 
him  as  many  as  he  needeth.  And  I  say  unto  you.  Ask,  and  it 
shall  be  given  you  ;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find  ;  knock,  and  it  shall 
be  opened  unto  you.  For  every  one  that  asketh  receiveth ;  and 
he  that  seeketh  findeth  ;  and  to  him  that  knocketh  it  shall  be 
opened.  — Luke  11  :  5-10. 

The  nature  and  function  of  prayer  are  so 
complex  that  we  must  view  the  subject  from 
many  sides  if  we  would  form  any  adequate  con- 
ception. From  some  points  of  view  it  seems  as 
if  prayer  were  an  impertinence.  Our  Saviour 
tells  us  that  our  Heavenly  Father  knoweth 
what  things  we  have  need  of  before  we  ask 
him ;  and  he  uses  this  consideration  as  an 
argument  for  prayers  simple,  short,  and  few. 


128  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

God  needeth  not  that  we  tell  him  anything, 
for  he  knoweth  us  altogether.  Again,  prayer 
may  seem  to  be  a  reflection  upon  the  divine 
goodness.  The  God  who  knoweth  our  needs 
without  our  telling  may  be  presumed  to  be 
willing  to  grant  what  we  need  without  our 
importunity.  Indeed,  our  Saviour  tells  us  that 
God  is  more  willing  to  bless  us  than  parents 
are  to  give  good  things  unto  their  children. 
So  far,  then,  from  thinking  that  the  divine 
love  can  be  moved  by  importunity  to  grant 
what  would  otherwise  be  withheld,  we  must 
rather  insist  that  it  will  withhold  nothing  that 
it  could  in  wisdom  grant.  Thus  prayer  seems 
to  imply  a  grudging  Deity,  and  a  grudging 
Deity  is  none. 

Ao-ain,  our  Saviour's  own  utterances  on 
this  subject  seem  to  be  conflicting.  On  the 
one  hand  we  are  not  to  pray  like  the  heathen, 
who  think  they  shall  be  heard  for  their  much 
speaking.  Vain  repetitions  are  forbidden.  Our 
prayers  are  to  be  simple,  and  we  are  to  have 
faith  in  God  our  Father,  who  knoweth  us  alto- 
gether. But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  the 


PRAYER  129 

parable  of  the  unjust  judge,  where  God  is  re- 
presented as  long  deaf  to  the  cries  of  his  own 
elect,  and  only  noticing  them  when,  by  their 
continual  coming,  they  have  wearied  him.  In 
the  passage  before  us  God  is  represented  as 
wrapped  in  a  midnight  slumber  from  which 
he  can  be  aroused  only  by  our  most  deter- 
mined effort  and  persistent  knocking.  Instead 
of  being  forward  to  answer  us,  he  is  back- 
ward ;  instead  of  being  tremulously  sensitive 
to  our  faintest  cry,  he  seems  almost  insensible 
to  our  loudest  call.  The  kingdom  of  heaven 
does  not  stand  wide  open  to  every  one  who 
chooses  to  straggle  in ;  it  is  a  walled  city,  to 
be  carried  by  storm.  It  suffereth  violence,  and 
the  violent  take  it  by  force.  Now  what  is  the 
meaning  of  all  this? 

If  we  should  sit  in  the  closet  and  speculate, 
we  should  probably  never  find  our  way  through 
this  maze.  The  doctrine  of  prayer  must  be  in- 
terpreted psychologically,  vitally,  practically, 
and  with  reference  to  God's  fundamental  pur- 
pose in  our  life.  From  any  other  point  of  view 
it  is  easily  made  to  seem  absurd  or  contradic- 


130  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

tory  ;  as  is  the  case  with  all  practical  doctrines 
when  they  are  discussed  apart  from  their  prac- 
tical relations. 

Let  our  first  inquiry  then  be,  What  is 
prayer  ? 

The  lowest  and  crudest  notion  concerning 
prayer  is  that  it  consists  in  asking  God  for 
things ;  and  its  value  consists  in  getting  the 
things  for  which  we  ask.  This  is  the  notion 
with  which  childhood  always  begins,  and  the 
only  one  which  childhood  can  entertain.  This 
notion  is  also  prominent  in  popular  religious 
thought,  and  underlies  much  of  what  is  said 
concerning  answers  to  prayer.  This  view  is 
very  superficial,  and  is  the  parent  of  much 
skepticism  respecting  prayer.  It  is  no  uncom- 
mon thing  to  find  young  persons  skeptical 
with  respect  to  prayer,  because  they  have 
failed  to  get  the  things  for  which  they  have 
prayed ;  and  often  the  faith  of  older  persons 
breaks  down  from  the  same  cause.  In  the 
stress  of  some  trial  they  have  faithfully 
prayed,  and  no  answer  has  come.  Friends  or 
relatives  have  died,  or  their  own  health  has 


PRAYER  131 

failed,  or  their  way  has  been  hedged  up  ;  and 
all  the  while  Heaven  has  seemed  as  deaf  to 
their  cries  and  entreaties  as  the  ear  of  the 
dead ;  and  they  have  been  left  to  sorrow  and 
uncertainty  and  bereavement  and  manifold 
distress.  Such  cases  abound  ;  and  if  we  would 
escape  the  painful  doubts  thence  arising,  we 
must  revise  and  deepen  our  conception  of 
prayer  and  its  relation  to  the  religious  life. 
Plainly,  the  view  of  prayer  as  a  talisman  or  a 
means  of  getting  things  is  inadequate  to  ex- 
perience. 

As  we  have  before  said,  prayer  cannot  be 
understood  or  discussed  by  itself,  but  only  in 
connection  with  God's  general  purpose  for 
men.  Our  Christian  faith  is  that  God's  deep- 
est purpose  in  the  creation  of  men  is  that  he 
may  have  spiritual  children  made  in  his  image 
and  likeness,  who  shall  know  him  and  love 
him,  and  to  whom  he  may  communicate  him- 
self in  blessing  for  ever  and  ever.  And  our 
earthly  life  is  arranged  by  divine  wisdom  for 
our  discipline  and  development  as  the  chil- 
dren of  God.  We  must  be  practiced  in  indus- 


132  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

try,  in  self-control,  in  integrity  and  faithful- 
ness, in  helpfulness  and  mutual  trust,  in  the 
love  and  practice  of  righteousness,  and  in 
faith  in  God.  In  such  a  life  we  need^j^preemi- 
nently  to  recognize  our  dependence  on  God, 
to  relate  our  life  to  his  will,  to  seek  to  enter 
into  fellowship  with  him.  This  religious  de- 
sire and  effort  of  the  soul  to  relate  itself  and 
all  its  interests  to  God  and  his  will  is  prayer 
in  the  deepest  sense.  This  is  essential  prayer. 
Uttered  or  unexpressed,  it  is  equally  prayer.  It 
is  the  soul's  desire  after  God  going  forth  in 
manifestation.  It  may  find  expression  in  peti- 
tion, or  in  worship,  or  in  obedience,  or  in 
multitudinous  forms  of  activity ;  but  the  thing 
itself  is  always  the  same  —  the  soul's  striving 
after  God.  This  is  the  prayer  which  may  exist 
without  ceasing,  consisting,  as  it  does,  not  in 
doing  or  saying  this  or  that,  but  in  the  temper 
or  attitude  of  the  spirit. 

Prayer  in  this  sense  is  the  very  essence  of 
religion.  Where  there  is  such  prayer,  there  is 
religion ;  and  where  there  is  any  spiritual  re- 
ligion, there  is  such  prayer.  Both  alike  are 


PRAYER  133 

essentially  the  attempt  to  find  God,  to  have 
communion  with  him,  to  relate  our  life  with 
all  its  contents  to  the  divine  plan,  and  to  sub- 
ordinate our  life  to  the  divine  will.  To  ask 
what  use  there  is  in  prayer  in  this  sense  is  the 
same  as  to  ask  what  use  there  is  in  religion ; 
and  to  the  spiritually-minded  the  question 
could  only  indicate  that  the  questioner  has 
neither  part  nor  lot  in  the  matter. 

But  what  of  the  prayer  of  petition  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  must  be  as 
complex  as  the  question  itself.  We  begin  by 
pointing  out  the  psychological  necessity  of 
prayer  in  this  form.  The  circumstances  of 
human  life  are  such  that  we  are  perpetually  re- 
minded of  our  needs  and  dependence  at  every 
turn.  Goods  are  lacking  ;  dangers  threaten  ; 
perplexities  surround  us.  The  future  is  hid- 
den, and  omens  of  ill  are  rarely  absent. 
This  is  true  for  the  purely  earthly  life,  and 
truer  still  for  the  hidden  life  of  the  spirit. 
Hence,  wherever  there  is  an  active  belief 
in  God  at  all,  there  will  always  be  petition. 
It  is  the  great  form  in  which  the  sense  of  de- 


134  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

pendence  finds  expression  in  both  private  and 
public  devotion.  We  recall  our  needs  or  they 
force  themselves  upon  us,  and  we  ask  God  for 
help  and  guidance  and  deliverance.  Some  reli- 
gious thinkers  of  a  quietistic  type  have  con- 
demned specific  petition  altogether,  beyond  the 
prayer  that  the  will  of  God  may  be  done ;  but 
this  has  been  ecclesiastically  condemned  as 
an  unreal  exaltation,  and  is  psychologically 
fictitious  and  practically  impossible  in  most 
lives. 

We  may,  however,  allow  that  the  prayer  of 
petition  will  exist  among  men  as  long  as  there 
is  prayer  at  all,  and  still  we  may  question 
whether  it  has  any  value  or  effect  beyond  its 
reflex  influence  upon  ourselves.  Other  things 
being  equal,  would  not  everything  go  on  just 
the  same  without  prayer  as  with  it? 

The  affirmative  here  is  often  maintained  in 
the  name  of  the  laws  of  nature.  These  laws, 
it  is  said,  go  on  of  themselves  and  make  an- 
swers to  prayer  impossible,  or  at  least  incred- 
ible. This  is  a  contention  of  a  superficial 
mechanical  philosophy.  It  commonly  supposes 


PRAYER  135 

that  nature  runs  of  itself  and  does  a  great 
many  things  which  were  neither  foreseen  nor 
intended.  They  are  simply  outcomes  of  the 
mechanical  necessity  which  rules  throughout 
the  entire  system.  Or  it  is  supposed  that  the 
laws  of  nature,  being  uniform,  forbid  any  in- 
terference and  necessitate  all  consequents  as 
resultants  of  their  antecedents.  The  progress 
of  philosophical  criticism  has  vacated  these 
notions.  That  self-running,  self-executing  na- 
ture is  seen  to  be  a  fiction  of  unclear  and 
superficial  thinking.  Nature,  if  anything  more 
than  a  system  of  phenomena,  is  in  any  case 
dependent  on  a  power  beyond  itself,  and  per- 
petually does  only  that  which  it  has  been  de- 
termined to  do.  Hence,  so  far  as  the  concep- 
tion of  nature  goes,  there  is  nothing  to  forbid 
the  thought  that  it  has  been  determined  with 
reference  to  human  needs  in  any  minuteness 
of  detail.  If  there  be  a  God  at  all,  man  and 
nature  must  be  comprised  in  one  plan,  and 
each  must  be  considered  with  reference  to 
the  other. 

Again,  the  uniformity  of  natural  laws  for- 


136  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

^  bids  no  answers  to  prayer.  Human  purpose 
and  volition  are  perpetually  playing  into  the 
system  of  law,  thereby  realizing  a  multitude 
of  effects  which  the  system,  left  to  itself, 
would  never  produce,  yet  in  such  a  way  that 
no  law  is  broken.  Natural  law  of  itself  would 
never  do  any  of  the  things  which  men  are  do- 
ing by  means  of  it.  The  work  of  the  world  is 
done  by  natural  forces  under  human  guidance. 
It  is  the  outcome  at  once  of  law  and  purpose. 
But,  if  this  is  possible  with  man,  it  must  be 
possible  with  God.  Hence  the  laws  themselves 
might  well  be  commissioned  by  God  to  move 
parallel  with  our  need  and  supply  our  want 
in  such  a  way  as  to  illustrate  the  uniformity 
of  law  and  realize  God's  will  concerning  us  at 
the  same  time. 

The  harmlessness  of  the  notion  of  law  be- 
comes all  the  more  manifest  when  we  reflect 
upon  the  divine  immanence  in  nature,  a  doc- 
trine which  is  fast  becoming  universal  in  the 
world  of  thought.  Popular  religious  thought 
is  almost  exclusively  based  on  the  deistic  con- 
ception of  an  absentee  God  and  a  self-running 


PRAYER  137 

nature.  God  has  at  present  no  administrative 
function  as  far  as  nature  is  concerned,  and  all 
events  result  by  mechanical  necessity  from 
their  antecedents.  God  is  responsible  only  for 
the  starting  of  things  in  general,  and  this 
occurred  so  very  long  ago  that  we  may  well 
suppose  that  if  he  ever  thought  of  the  details 
of  the  cosmic  on-going,  they  long  since  faded 
out  of  his  interest  and  even  out  of  his  thought 
altogether.  But  this  is  an  illusion  which  pro- 
founder  thinking  has  long  since  dispelled.  All 
finite  things  continuously  have  their  existence 
in  God ;  and  all  things  come  to  pass,  or  stand, 
or  go,  because  of  the  divine  purpose  of  which 
they  are  an  expression,  and  because  of  the 
divine  will  on  which  they  depend  and  from 
which  they  proceed.  Thus  all  things  and 
events,  even  to  the  minutest  details,  are  com- 
prehended in  the  divine  thought  and  purpose, 
and  in  their  causality  rest  immediately  on  the 
divine  will.  If  there  is  purpose  in  anything, 
there  is  purpose  in  everything.  There  is  and 
can  be  no  division  of  labor  between  God  and 
nature,  but  all  things  are  in  his  hand,  and  in 


138  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

all  things  he  is  present  to  will  and  to  do  of 
his  good  pleasure. 

The  difficulty  with  the  prayer  of  petition 
does  not  lie  in  the  field  of  science  and  specu- 
lative philosophy,  but  rather  in  the  field  of 
experience  and  religious  thought  itself.  Science 
does  not  indeed  show  that  prayer  cannot  be 
answered ;  but  of  what  value  is  this  result  if 
experience  shows  that  it  is  not  answered  ?  And 
what  comfort  do  we  get  from  the  volumes  on 
"  Remarkable  Answers  to  Prayer  "  so  long  as 
these  answers  are  lacking  in  our  own  experi- 
ence ?  There  is  certainly  little  help  in  reading 
of  some  doubtful  answer  to  prayer  in  some 
distant  place  and  time,  while  we  have  to  worry 
alonor  as  best  we  can  on  our  own  resources. 
Again,  what  can  there  be  in  mere  petition  to 
change  the  mind  of  God,  so  that  he  would  do 
somethins:  because  of  it  which  he  would  not 
do  without  it  ?  The  bare  thought  seems  to  bor- 
der on  irreverence. 

These  questions  represent  real  difficulties  in 
the  minds  of  a  great  many  concerning  the 
prayer  of  petition.  We  come  upon  them  not 


PRAYER  139 

only  among  the  irreligious,  but  also  among 
thougflitful  Christians  themselves.  We  detect 
their  influence  at  times  even  in  the  prayers 
from  the  pulpit,  in  the  subjects  of  petition  and 
sometimes  in  a  tendency  to  avoid  petition  al- 
together except  of  the  most  general  sort.  The 
subject  needs  more  careful  analysis. 

In  further  discussion  of  the  subject  we  point 
out  once  more  that  our  thought  of  prayer 
must  be  conditioned  by  our  thought  of  God 
and  his  purpose  concerning  us.  Prayer  is  not 
something  standing  alone  and  admitting  of 
being  discussed  by  itself ;  it  must  rather  be 
considered  in  connection  with  the  system  of 
religious  thought  of  which  it  forms  a  part. 
Not  everybody  can  pray,  not  every  petition 
is  prayer,  and  not  everything  is  the  subject  of 
prayer.  Prayer  in  the  Christian  sense  has  limi- 
tations imposed  by  good  sense  in  general  and 
also  by  Christian  thought  and  doctrine.  These 
we  now  consider. 

And  first  it  is  clear  that  the  great  outlines 
of  life  and  the  essential  laws  of  the  world  and 
society  do  not  lie  within  the  range  of  petition. 


140  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

Prayers  for  the  maintenance  of  the  uniformity 
of  nature  or  for  the  reversal  of  chemical  law 
or  the  law  of  gravitation  would  impress  every 
one  as  absurd.  These  things  are  founded  in 
the  divine  wisdom,  and  with  them  prayer  has 
naught  to  do. 

It  is  equally  plain  that  petition  is  not  needed 
to  give  information  as  to  our  wants.  God 
knoweth  us  altogether.  Nor  is  it  needed  to 
change  God's  disposition  toward  us,  as  if  mere 
importunity  could  be  efficient.  Neither  our 
much  speaking  nor  our  long  speaking  can  be 
supposed  to  add  efficiency  to  prayer. 

Again,  positively,  our  prayers  must  always 
be  conditional,  being  offered  in  submission  to 
the  divine  will  and  goodness.  We  may  not 
prescribe  to  God,  but  must  leave  to  him  to 
do  what  is  best.  "  Not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou 
wilt,"  is  the  language  of  all  true  prayer. 

Further,  it  is  clear  that  we  may  not  ask  to 
be  freed  from  the  labor,  the  sorrow,  and  vari- 
ous vicissitudes  of  the  human  lot ;  for  that 
would  be  to  take  ourselves  out  of  the  training 
and  discipline  which  God  has  provided  for  us. 


PRAYER  141 

The  general  form  and  circumstances  of  life 
are  a  part  of  the  ordinance  of  God,  and  are 
intended  for  discipline  and  development  in 
the  spiritual  life.  No  prayer  can  change  them. 
In  this  realm  the  answer  to  prayer  commonly 
takes  the  form  of  increased  strength  or  pa- 
tience for  the  bearing  of  the  burden,  or  some 
deeper  sense  of  the  divine  presence  and  pur- 
pose ;  as  when  Paul  prayed  for  the  removal 
of  his  thorn  in  the  flesh  and  received  the  an- 
swer:  "My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee,  for 
my  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness." 

Another  specification  of  the  same  thought 
is  that  prayer  cannot  be  used  to  ward  off  the 
consequences  of  our  own  ignorance  or  care- 
lessness or  neglect.  No  day  of  fasting  and 
prayer  would  avail  against  the  neglect  of  sani- 
tary laws.  No  prayer  can  dissolve  the  connec- 
tion of  cause  and  effect  and  reap  wheat  from 
weeds.  In  all  such  cases  obedience  is  the  only 
effective  prayer. 

Again,  God  has  ordained  that  men  shall 
rely  upon  themselves  in  a  great  many  things. 
No  prayer  can  remove  this  fact ;  it  would  be 


142  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

calamitous  if  it  did.  And  no  prayer  is  admis- 
sible which  asks  God  to  do  for  us  what  we 
ought  to  do  for  ourselves.  This  is  the  prayer 
of  ignorance  and  laziness,  and  ought  not  to 
prevail.  Of  the  same  sort  is  the  prayer  which 
thinks  to  get  the  gifts  of  heaven  without  ful- 
filling the  conditions  ;  as  when  a  student  prays 
for  knowledge  and  shirks  the  labor  of  study, 
or  one  prays  for  the  gifts  and  graces  of  the 
spirit  without  girding  himself  for  strenuous 
and  holy  living.  Prayer  conceived  as  a  means 
of  escaping  work  is  an  irreverence  as  well  as 
a  failure. 

All  true  prayer  must  observe  these  condi- 
tions, and  reflection  upon  them  reveals  that 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  praying  which  is  not 
true  prayer  at  all,  but  only  an  idle  or  irreverent 
or  presuming  utterance  of  words.  But  as  we 
reflect  further  upon  them  the  question  also 
recurs,  "  What  is  the  value  of  prayer  conceived 
as  petition  ?  "  We  answer,  it  is  practically  and 
psychologically  necessary  for  developing  and 
expressing  our  sense  of  dependence  on  God, 
and  this  is  one  of  the  essential  factors  of  reli- 


PRAYER  143 

glon.  As  the  religious  life  grows,  we  may 
change  the  nature  of  our  petitions.  We  may 
pass  from  particular  requests  to  more  inclu- 
sive spiritual  prayers  ;  but,  in  general,  petition 
will  always  remain  an  element  of  our  human 
prayers. 

Further,  such  prayer,  while  a  condescension 
on  the  part  of  God  to  human  weakness,  will 
long  remain  a  necessary  part  of  our  religious 
life.  As  life  wears  on,  brings  out  its  trials  and 
reveals  its  uncertainties,  the  religious  soul  is 
more  and  more  thrown  back  on  God  as  the 
only  one  who  knows  us,  who  fully  sympathizes 
with  us,  and  who  can  really  help  us.  Thus  the 
soul  comes  to  carry  everything  to  God  in  the 
assurance  that  he  hears  us,  sympathizes  with 
us,  and  will  help  us  as  his  love  may  prompt  and 
his  wisdom  may  direct.  It  would  be  an  unreal 
and  unwholesome  refinement  which  would  seek 
to  displace  this  childlike  openness  and  confi- 
dence by  some  colorless  and  general  expression 
of  trust.  To  pray  about  everything  in  submis- 
sion to  God's  will  would  be  both  more  human 
and  more  Christian  than  a  scrupulous  limita- 


144  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

tion  of  our  prayers  to  what  we  might  think 
permissible  subjects  of  petition.  God,  without 
whom  no  sparrow  falls  and  who  numbers  the 
hairs  on  our  head,  is  not  indifferent  to  any- 
thing which  concerns  his  children,  and  they 
may  talk  with  him  about  everything  with  all 
the  freedom  of  children  in  their  Father's 
house. 

But  still  the  old  doubt  pursues  us.  We  see 
an  important  function  of  prayer  and  even  its 
necessity  from  the  human  side,  but  does  it 
effect  anything  on  the  divine  side  ?  It  is,  in- 
deed, a  necessary  form  of  religious  manifesta- 
tion, but,  other  things  being  equal,  would 
prayer  alter  anything,  or  would  the  result  be 
the  same  with  prayer  or  without  it  ? 

To  resolve  this  doubt  we  must  recur  to 
what  we  have  said  about  essential  prayer. 
This,  we  said,  is  the  desire  and  effort  of  the 
soul  to  relate  itself  and  all  its  interests  to  God 
and  his  will.  It  may  find  expression  in  peti- 
tion, or  in  worship,  or  in  obedience,  or  in 
work  of  various  kinds.  Now,  from  the  divine 
side,  this  attitude  of  the  soul  is  the  only  thing 


PRAYER  145 

considered.  This  is  the  effectual,  fervent  prayer 
of  the  righteous  man  which  availeth  much. 
To  it  verbal  petition  adds  no  effectiveness, 
and  the  lack  of  such  petition  is  no  loss.  In 
public  prayer  verbal  petition  is  necessary  to 
guide  the  thought  of  the  people  and  to  ex- 
press their  desires  and  sense  of  dependence. 
In  private  prayer  it  may  often  be  necessary  to 
fix  and  intensify  the  desire.  But,  in  both 
cases,  the  essential  thing  is  the  attitude  and 
desire  of  the  spirit.  The  real  prayer,  the 
effective  prayer,  lies  in  the  latter  solely  and 
alone.  In  other  words,  if  we  conceive  two  per- 
sons equally  desirous  of  knowing  and  doing  the 
•will  of  God,  and  equally  loyal  in  the  spirit,  we 
cannot  believe  that  God,  who  looketh  at  the 
heart,  would  deal  with  them  differently  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  of  verbal  petition  ;  so 
that  one  who  might  have  prayed  in  the  morn- 
ing to  be  delivered  from  accident  and  sudden 
death  would  be  more  safe  than  one  who  simply 
trusted  in  the  divine  care  without  specifica- 
tion. Nor  can  we  believe  that  two  communi- 
ties, equally  religious  in  spirit,  would  be  dif- 


146  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

ferentlj  treated  in  the  matter  of  rain  because 
one  included  in  its  liturgy  a  prayer  for  the 
early  and  the  latter  rain  while  the  other  omit- 
ted it.  Nor  can  we  believe  that  two  such  com- 
munities, equally  regardful  of  sanitary  laws, 
would  be  differently  treated  in  the  matter  of 
health  because  one  offered  and  the  other  omit- 
ted public  prayers  for  the  public  health  and 
the  warding  off  of  pestilence.  To  suppose  the 
opposite  would  be  to  turn  prayer  into  magic 
and  incantation.  Let  us  say,  then,  that  prayer 
as  petition  has  no  effect  or  significance  on  the 
divine  side,  except  as  it  expresses  that  spirit- 
ual attitude  of  soul  which  it  has  pleased  God 
to  make  a  condition  of  the  bestowment  of  his 
blessing.  When  God  answers  prayer  he  does 
not  answer  the  verbal  petition,  but  the  desire 
of  the  soul  sfoins'  forth  in  work  and  the  use  of 
all  the  means  for  the  attainment  of  the  thing 
needed.  From  the  human  side  we  need  prayer 
as  petition  for  its  place  in  social  religion,  for 
its  value  in  religious  pedagogics,  and  for  its 
psychological  necessity  in  the  religious  life  of 
the  individual ;  but,  from  the  divine  side,  we 


PRAYER  147 

do  not  need  prayer  as  petition,  but  only  the 
prayerful  attitude  of  the  spirit  j  that  is,  the 
desire  of  the  soul  to  relate  itself  and  all  its 
interests  to  God  and  his  will.  From  the  divine 
side  the  sufficient  and  all-inclusive  prayer  is 
"  Thy  will  be  done." 

Here  several  scruples  will  arise  in  both  re- 
ligious and  irreligious  minds  which  have  not 
thought  this  matter  through.  First  of  all,  it 
will  occur  to  some  that  this  view  keeps  us 
far  removed  from  God,  that  God  leaves  our 
prayers  unanswered,  and  that  we  are  left  to 
the  blind  mechanism  of  law  and  nature  with 
no  Friend  or  Father  near.  This  objection 
rests  on  that  deistic  conception  of  nature  to 
which  we  have  already  referred.  The  answer 
must  be  that  this  mechanism  is  a  sheer  fiction. 
Nature  is  God's  continuous  deed  ;  and  natural 
laws  are  only  his  uniform  ways  of  working. 
They  are  no  barrier  thrusting  themselves  be- 
tween God  and  us.  We  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being  in  him,  and  he  is  never  far 
from  any  one  of  us.  If,  then,  things  go  on  in 
the  familiar  routine,  it  is  not  because  God  is 


148  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

far  off,  or  that  he  has  intrusted  the  supply  of 
our  wants  to  some  lifeless  machine,  but  be- 
cause that  routine  is  the  best  thing  for  us. 
Or,  if  our  prayers  are  not  answered  as  we  de- 
sire, it  is  not  because  God  does  not  hear  us 
and  sympathize  with  us,  but  because  he  has 
something  better  for  us.  The  far-off,  absentee 
God  is  a  product  of  unclear  thought.  The 
true  God  is  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus,  whose  ear  is  ever  open  unto  our  cry, 
but  who  answers  only  as  divine  love  and  wis- 
dom dictate. 

To  the  objection  that  our  prayers  are  not 
answered  on  this  view  we  can  only  reply  by 
asking  what  we  really  desire  in  the  matter. 
Do  we  mean  to  offer  our  prayer  as  an  ultima- 
tum? Do  we  wish  to  have  our  way  without 
any  reference  to  what  God  sees  to  be  wisest 
and  best?  Are  we  so  sure  of  our  own  judg- 
ment that  we  insist  on  it  without  submission 
to  God?  Is  God  there  simply  to  receive  and 
execute  our  dictates,  and  not  as  our  Father 
who  hears  our  prayer  and  decides  for  us  ac- 
cording to  his  divine  love  and  wisdom?  Such 


PRAYER  149 

petition  is  not  prayer ;  it  is  blasphemous  rav- 
ing. It  is  the  supreme  triumph  of  that  selfish- 
ness in  us  which  is  the  root  of  all  evil  aiul 
irreligion.  No  one  can  pray  who  does  not 
•make  the  will  of  God  his  supreme  object,  and 
no  one  has  prayed  who  has  not  through  his 
prayer  come  more  into  harmony  with  that  will. 
Real  prayer  will  always  justify  itself  in  the 
life  of  one  who  prays,  but  saying  prayers  with 
the  aim  of  subordinating  God  to  our  selfish  or 
shortsighted  purposes  must  always  be  failure. 

Thus  we  have  considered  some  of  the  diffi- 
culties in  popular  thought  concerning  prayer, 
and  have  sought  to  find  a  point  of  view  from 
which  these  difficulties,  so  far  as  they  are  real, 
might  disappear.  We  pass  now  to  some  mis- 
conceptions which  should  be  eliminated. 

Prayer  is  often  conceived  as  a  talisman 
for  getting  something  without  work.  Experi- 
ence soon  cures  us  of  this  notion  in  the  physi- 
cal realm,  but  in  the  social  and  spiritual  world 
it  lasts  indefinitely.  No  one  would  think  of 
raising  a  crop  of  wheat  by  prayer  alone ;  but 
when   we   come   to  mental  improvement,  to 


150  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

spiritual  growth,  to  social  reform  and  pro- 
gress, there  is  a  fancy  that  prayer  alone  is 
the  srreat  instrument  of  success.  This  over- 
looks  the  true  nature  of  prayer,  and  also  the 
conditional  form  of  human  progress.  In  all 
matters  which  God  has  made  to  depend  on  hu- 
man action,  that  is  not  prayer,  but  irreverent 
impertinence,  which  pours  itself  out  in  verbal 
petition  while  neglecting  to  use  the  means 
which  lie  in  our  power.  To  appoint  a  day  of 
fasting  and  prayer  to  ward  off  the  cholera, 
while  allowing  the  streets  and  houses  and 
water-supply  to  reek  with  filth  and  all  manner 
of  insanitary  abomination,  would  be  more  like 
blasphemy  than  prayer.  A  farmer,  lying  on  his 
back  in  the  shade,  while  his  fields  remain  un- 
plowed  and  unsown,  cannot  truly  pray  for  a 
harvest.  In  all  cases  where  our  activity  is  de- 
manded work  is  a  necessary  part  of  prayer  ; 
or  rather  it  is  the  form  which  true  prayer 
necessarily  takes  on. 

And  here  we  come  upon  the  essential  mean- 
ing of  our  text.  Heaven's  ear  is  deaf  to  easy 
verbal  petitions.  It  is  not  until  the  whole  soul 


PRAYER  151 

is  engaged  that  we  can  be  said  to  pray.  Prayer 
in  its  purest  essence  is  found  in  all  action  to- 
ward the  desired  object.  It  is  the  pouring  out 
of  the  whole  soul,  not  only  in  word,  but  in 
act  as  well,  for  the  attainment  of  what  we 
seek.  Nor  does  God  hasten  to  answer  even 
then.  He  waits  until  the  soul  is  all  in  earnest, 
until  man  has  done  all  he  can  do,  until  the 
spirit  of  Jacob  has  come  over  the  soul  which 
will  wrestle  with  the  angel  and  never  let  go 
until  it  receives  the  blessing.  Then  God  hears 
and  answers.  This  is  the  meaning  of  this 
rather  strange  parable  about  the  sleeping  and 
churlish  householder  who  at  last  yields  to  im- 
portunity. 

And  this  is  the  law  of  God's  dealing  with 
men  in  general.  Everywhere  God  makes  our 
blessings  largely  dependent  on  our  own  efforts. 
Only  thus  could  men  be  drilled  and  developed. 
He  gives  nothing  until  we  want  it  and  work 
for  it.  We  must  work  out  our  own  salvation. 
We  ought  not,  then,  to  be  surprised  at  finding 
the  same  law  to  hold  in  the  spiritual  realm. 
We  cannot  reap  a  spiritual  harvest  without 


152  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

sowing  the  seed  and  doing  the  work.  The  man 
who  would  win  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  if  he 
contents  himself  with  simple  asking,  will  not 
be  heard.  He  who  seeks  anything  of  God  in  an 
easy  and  careless  way  never  obtains.  Not  that 
God  must  be  pleaded  with  to  make  him  willing 
to  give,  but  that  we  must  acquire  a  certain 
fitness  before  we  can  receive.  But  when  the 
soul  is  in  full  earnest,  when  with  each  new 
rebuff  or  disheartening  silence  its  resolution 
takes  deeper  root  and  its  effort  grows  more 
intense,  then  the  answer  comes  :  0  Soul,  great 
is  thy  faith !  Be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou 
wilt. 

And  if  the  answer  should  not  come  in  the 
form  in  which  we  have  sought  it,  it  would  in 
some  better  one.  God  often  answers  our  prayers 
while  we  are  still  knocking,  and  in  a  better 
way  than  we  asked  for.  We  pray  for  physical 
good,  and  God  answers  with  spiritual  life.  We 
pray  to  be  freed  from  the  burden,  and  God 
answers  with  patience  and  strength  to  endure. 
We  pray  to  be  spared  the  conflict,  and  God 
gives  us  courage  to  fight  the  good  fight  of 


PRAYER  153 

faith.  The  gre^t  end  of  religious  effort  is  a 
developed  soul,  a  soul  with  a  deep  sense  of 
God,  a  soul  in  which  faith,  courage,  and  reso- 
lution are  at  their  hio^hest.  That  these  things 
be  attained  is  the  greatest  of  blessings ;  tliey 
are  God's  best  gift  to  us.  The  soul  that  prays 
for  patience,  and  has  patience  enough  to  con- 
tinue praying  when  Heaven  seems  deaf  or 
dead,  has  been  answered,  though  it  knows  it 
not.  The  soul  that  prays  for  energy  and  reso- 
lution, and  finds  its  resolve  to  get  the  bless- 
ing growing  stronger  with  each  new  rebuff, 
has  already  been  answered.  While  we  deem 
ourselves  forsaken  and  unheard,  the  answer  is 
going  on.  Faith  has  grown  stronger,  resolve 
has  taken  deeper  root,  the  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness  has  increased,  manhood 
has  been  nourished,  and  if,  at  last,  the  direct 
and  visible  answer  to  our  prayer  should  come, 
the  direct  blessing  would  not  compare  with 
the  benedictions  which  have  come  from  its 
delay. 

From  all  this  I  gather  several  lessons. 

First,  we  should  beware  of  offering  prayers 


154  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

■which  we  ought  to  answer  ourselves,  or  at 
least  we  should  beware  of  thinking  that  they 
will  have  any  influence  in  heaven.  Such 
prayers,  at  best,  can  accomplish  anything  only 
with  men.  Here  belong  all  the  prayers  of  the 
spiritually  idle  and  of  all  who  are  failing  to 
use  the  means  of  influence  in  their  power. 
Prayers  for  the  reform  of  society,  the  conver- 
sion of  the  world,  etc.,  belong  here.  In  all 
these  matters  God  has  done  his  part  already ; 
and  the  only  thing  needed  is  that  men  should 
do  theirs.  One  can  hardly  imagine  anything 
more  utterly  inverted  and  out  of  place  than  a 
prayer  for  God  to  have  mercy  on  the  poor  or 
on  the  heathen.  The  great  need  is  that  we 
ourselves  should  have  mercy  upon  them.  We 
may  be  perfectly  sure  that  God  will  do  his 
part  without  our  prayer. 

Secondly,  we  may  pray  about  everything. 
This  is  the  privilege  of  God's  children.  We 
may  talk  with  our  Father  of  whatever  lies  on 
our  heart,  and  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves 
to  get  permission  from  science  or  philosophy. 
But  these  prayers  must  all  be  offered  in  de- 


PRAYER  155 

vout  submission  to  the  will  and  wisdom  of  our 
Father,  and  we  must  filially  accept  whatever 
he  sends,  whether  it  agrees  with  our  wish  or 
not.  It  is  commonly  of  little  importance  and 
seldom  of  lasting  significance  whether  we  do, 
or  do  not,  receive  the  thing  on  which  for  the 
time  our  heart  may  be  set;  but  it  is  of  great 
importance  and  of  eternal  significance  that  we 
come  into  harmony  with  the  will  of  God,  and 
that  we  see  this  will  to  be  perfect  in  wisdom 
and  love.  With  our  native  willfulness  and 
earthliness,  it  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  this  so 
as  to  say  from  the  heart  in  the  midst  of  our 
disappointments  and  distresses  and  losses, 
"God's  will,  not  mine,  be  done."  When  we 
have  really  learned  this,  earth  has  little  more 
to  teach  us.  And  whatever  may  come,  let  us 
remember  that,  in  any  case,  we  are  not  for- 
saken or  alone,  for  the  Father  is  always  with 
us  even  though  he  seem  to  hide  himself;  and 
his  loving  will  is  being  done  though  we  can- 
not trace  it. 

Thirdly,  we  must  not  be    disturbed    over 
God's  seeming  delay.  With  the   growth    of 


156  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

spiritual  insight  we  make  less  and  less  of 
worldly  goods,  and  see  them  in  their  fleet- 
ing and  accidental  character.  Prayer,  in  this 
realm,  can  never  be  unconditional ;  and  these 
things  tend  to  cease  to  be  objects  of  prayer  at 
all,  except  as  there  may  be  manifest  need. 
There  is  no  ground  for  surprise  in  unanswered 
prayer  in  these  matters.  But  God's  delay  in 
answering  our  prayers  for  spiritual  blessings 
causes  more  surprise.  We  know  it  is  God's 
will  to  give  us  these  things,  and  we  may  pray 
without  limitation.  Why,  then,  the  delay  ?  The 
reason  is  found  in  what  we  have  said.  There 
is  nothing  magical  in  the  spiritual  life.  Its 
foundations  must  be  laid,  not  without  our  own 
effort,  in  the  humble  virtues  of  faithfulness, 
integrity,  patience,  persistence,  industry  ;  and 
until  these  are  learned,  the  higher  spiritual 
virtues,  the  deeper  insight,  the  abiding  peace, 
the  unbroken  communion,  would  be  impossible 
and  out  of  place.  Without  these  foundations 
the  higher  gifts,  if  they  were  possible,  would 
degenerate  into  spiritual  pride  and  Pharisaism. 
Fourthly,  alleged  answers  to  prayer  should 


PRAYER  157 

be  very  carefully  scrutinized  before  being 
allowed,  and  very  carefully  interpreted  when 
allowed.  There  is  considerable  ignorance  on 
this  point  in  popular  thought,  which  often 
leads  to  religious  scandal.  There  is  in  reli- 
gious experience  so  much  of  what  from  the 
popular  standpoint  must  be  viewed  as  unan- 
swered prayer,  and  that  on  the  part  of  the 
best  and  holiest,  that  we  cannot  be  too  careful 
in  our  interpretation.  It  is  well  known  what 
crude  and  irreverent  interpretations  of  God's 
providential  government  are  often  given  by 
the  ignorant  and  unspiritually-minded;  and 
the  same  thing  occurs  in  the  matter  of  prayer. 
Some  coincidence  that  fits  into  the  person's 
desire  is  fastened  upon  as  an  answer  to  prayer, 
and  not  infrequently  spiritual  pride  and  Phari- 
saism result.  But  we  must  remember  that  un- 
answered prayer,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  any- 
thing but  the  spiritual  life,  has  been  the  rule 
in  the  experience  of  the  Saints.  Even  the 
Master's  prayers  and  those  of  the  Great  Apos- 
tle were  not  answered.  The  cup  did  not  pass 
without  being  drunk,  and  the  thorn   in  the 


158  THE  ESSENCE  OF  KELIGION 

flesh  was  not  removed.  We  must  then  beware 
of  thinking  that  unanswered  prayer  necessarily 
points  to  divine  disfavor,  or  to  unfaithf iihiess 
on  the  part  of  the  suppliant.  Never  was  the 
Divine  Son  more  well-pleasing  to  the  Father, 
and  never  was  the  Father  more  gracious  to 
the  Son,  than  when  the  prayer  for  the  passing 
of  the  cup  went  unanswered.  In  the  recent 
Boxer  uprising  some  of  the  missionaries  es- 
caped; and  their  escape  was  spoken  of  as  a 
signal  case  of  answered  prayer.  But  what  of 
those  who  did  not  escape,  and  for  whom 
equally  fervent  and  believing  prayer  was  of- 
fered ?  Such  notions  are  based  upon  a  very 
shallow  conception  of  prayer  and  of  Christian 
teaching  in  general,  and  do  more  harm  than 
good  when  offered  as  aids  to  faith.  The  inter- 
pretation of  prayer,  as  of  providence,  must  be 
left  to  the  future  where  we  shall  know  as  we 
are  known.  Meanwhile,  as  wise  Christians,  we 
must  pray  as  if  work  were  useless,  and  work 
as  if  prayer  were  useless,  and  in  both  cases 
leave  the  result  with  God. 
Finally,  the  study  of  this  subject  must  be 


PRAYER  •  159 

perfectly  barren  except  from  the  Christian 
standpoint.  The  life  of  prayer  is  the  only 
thing  that  gives  prayer  any  meaning.  If  God 
be  our  Father  and  we  are  his  children,  prayer 
will  always  be  self-evident  in  its  fitness  and 
necessity.  But  we  must  distinguish  between 
the  spirit  of  prayer  and  the  saying  of  prayers. 
The  latter  may  become  mechanical,  and  may 
include  a  great  deal  of  unwise  and  mistaken 
petition.  But  there  is  no  question  about  the 
spirit  of  prayer.  This  is  the  very  gist  and  es- 
sence of  religion,  and  this  is  life's  deepest 
spring.  Let  us,  then,  aim  to  live  in  the  sense 
of  our  dependence  on  God  and  in  the  desire 
and  purpose  to  relate  ourselves  and  all  our 
interests  to  his  will,  so  that  all  we  think  or 
desire  or  do  may  begin,  continue,  and  end  in 
him. 


^ 


VII 

SALVATION  AND  BELIEF 


VII 

SALVATION    AND    BELIEF 

My  subject  must  be  taken  to  mean  the  rela- 
tion of  the  creed,  or  intellectual  belief,  to  sal- 
vation. Tliis  relation,  however,  is  mutual. 
The  creed  has  significance  for  salvation ;  and 
salvation  has  significance  for  the  creed.  This 
double  significance  appears  in  the  texts  I  have 
chosen. 

I.  "  And  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to 
be  well-pleasing  to  God ;  for  he  that  cometh 
to  God  must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is 
a  re  warder  of  them  that  seek  after  him."  — 
Eeh.  11 :  6. 

II.  "Now  the  natural  man  receiveth  not 
the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God :  for  they 
are  foolishness  unto  him;  and  he  cannot  know 
them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned." 
—  1  Cor.  2  :  14. 

In  the  first  text  belief  is  seen  to  precede  and 
condition  salvation;  but   in  the  second  text 


164  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

salvation,  that  is,  the  renewed  spiritual  life, 
is  made  a  condition  of  true  belief.  Both  state- 
ments are  true,  and  both  have  to  be  taken  into 
account  in  the  study  of  Salvation  and  Belief. 
Our  subject,  then,  becomes  double. 

I.  The  Relation  of  Belief  to  Salvation. 
II.  The  Relation  of  Salvation  to  Belief. 


Concerning  the  relation  of  correct  intellect- 
ual belief  to  salvation  there  have  been  two 
extremes  of  error.  On  the  one  hand,  it  has 
been  made  the  supreme  condition  ;  and  on  the 
other,  it  has  been  denied  all  significance.  The 
Athanasian  creed  illustrates  the  first  error. 
It  begins  by  saying,  "  Whoever  will  be  saved, 
before  all  things  it  is  necessary  that  he  hold 
the  catholic  faith  ;  which  faith  except  every 
one  do  keep  whole  and  undefiled,  without 
doubt  he  shall  perish  everlastingly."  Then 
follows  a  variety  of  highly  metaphysical  and 
intricate,  not  to  say  obscure,  propositions  about 
the  Trinity  and  the  incarnation;  and  after 
them  comes  the  clause  "  This  is  the  catholic 


SALVATION  AND  BELIEF  165 

faith;  which  except  a  man  believe  faithfully 
he  cannot  be  saved."  Here  correct  intellectual 
belief,  or  technical  orthodoxy,  is  made  a  neces- 
sary condition  of  salvation  ;  and  by  implica- 
tion a  large  part  of  the  Christian  world,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  non-Christian  world,  is  handed 
over  to  endless  perdition.   This  is  one  extreme. 

The  other  extreme  consists  in  repudiating 
all  belief  as  unnecessary  to  salvation.  This  ex- 
treme is  a  natural  reaction  against  the  previous 
one.  Orthodoxy  comes  in  for  many  a  clever 
sarcasm ;  and  to  call  a  man  orthodox  is  almost 
to  reflect  on  his  intelligence.  Dogma  is  like- 
wise a  word  of  evil  sound,  and  to  speak  of  a 
man  as  dogmatic  is  to  stamp  him  as  strong  in 
assertion,  but  weak  or  wanting  in  argument. 
Orthodoxy  and  dogma  have  kept  such  bad 
company  in  the  past,  consorting  often  with 
unreason,  oppression,  and  violence,  that  it  is 
quite  the  fashion  to  decry  and  deride  them. 
But  this  also  is  an  error. 

In  both  of  these  cases  there  has  been  a  tend- 
ency to  view  salvation  somewhat  mechanically, 
and   as  an  isolated  event  which  might  take 


166  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

place  without  much  connection  with  the  moral 
and  spiritual  life  of  the  person.  Salvation  is  a 
rescue  from  an  impending  external  danger,  a 
cancelling  of  a  debt  which  might  be  paid  by 
another,  a  satisfying  of  a  judgment  standing 
against  us  on  the  books  of  heaven,  a  removal  of 
the  saved  person  from  a  place  of  danger  to  a 
place  of  safety.  In  short,  salvation  consists  in 
getting  into  heaven  as  an  external  place  and 
keeping  out  of  hell  as  another  external  place ; 
and  the  person  who  gets  into  heaven  is  saved 
and  the  one  who  gets  into  hell  is  lost. 

This  is  the  conception  of  salvation  which 
has  been  implicit  and  even  explicit  in  most  of 
the  discussion  of  the  relation  of  salvation  to 
belief.  With  this  mechanical  conception  it 
seemed  possible  to  think  of  a  mechanical  sal- 
vation. Reason  and  conscience  not  having 
much  to  do  with  the  case,  it  was  quite  in  order 
to  find  the  condition  of  salvation  in  the  due 
performance  of  some  religious  rite,  or  assent 
to  some  intellectual  creed.  Moreover,  criticism 
could  always  be  warned  off  by  the  reflection 
that  the  clay  must  not  complain  of  the  potter, 


SALVATION   AND   BELIEF  167 

and  that  with  God  all  things  are  possible.  The 
same  notion  that  getting  into  heaven  as  a  place 
is  the  sum  of  salvation  equally  underlies  most 
of  the  anti-dogmatic  polemics.  It  is  made  a 
question  of  the  salvation  or  damnation  of  the 
heathen,  and  various  other  unfortunates.  And 
the  aim  is  less  to  secure  spiritual  life  than  to 
keep  any  one  from  being  hurt ;  for  this  no- 
thinsr  seems  needed  but  universal  and  abound- 
ing  good  nature  on  the  part  of  God. 

Now  out  of  such  confusion  as  this  there 
seems  to  be  no  escape  but  by  more  carefully 
analyzing  our  problem.  Let  us  say,  then,  first, 
with  all  conviction,  that  simple  intellectual 
assent  to  a  dogma  can  never  be  a  ground 
for  acceptance  with  God,  and  that  simple  re- 
jection of  a  dogma  can  never  be  a  ground  for 
rejection  by  God.  The  guilt  or  innocence  of 
a  soul  can  never  be  a  matter  of  heterodoxy  or 
orthodoxy,  but  only  of  the  person's  attitude 
toward  his  ideals  of  righteousness.  God's  judg- 
ment of  the  heathen  also  is  not  our  affair ;  but 
■we  may  be  perfectly  sure  that  the  heathen  will 
be  judged  by  the  light  they  have,  and  not  by 


168  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

the  light  they  have  not;  and  above  all  we  may 
be  sure  that  the  God  and  Father  whom  the 
Lord  Jesus  revealed  can  be  trusted  to  deal  in 
love  and  mercy  with  all  the  souls  that  he  has 
made. 

But  the  progress  of  religious  thought  is 
gradually  changing  the  whole  problem.  Sal- 
vation is  no  longer  a  forensic  problem  of  arti- 
ficial justice  and  criminal  law,  but  a  problem 
of  moral  and  spiritual  dynamics.  The  concep- 
tion has  been  moralized  and  spiritualized. 
Salvation  does  not  consist  in  reasoning  men 
from  external  danger  and  putting  them  into  a 
place  of  external  safety,  but  rather  in  produc- 
ing and  maintaining  the  filial  spirit  toward 
God  which  shall  issue  in  a  life  of  obedience  to 
his  commandments,  and  in  working  together 
with  God  to  bring  in  and  establish  his  king- 
dom in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men.  Whatever 
mysterious  conditions  of  our  salvation  there 
may  be  in  the  divine  nature  or  in  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  divine  government,  they  are  not 
our  affair,  and  will  doubtless  be  provided  for 
without  our  aid.  All  such  conditions  are  sufifi- 


SALVATION   AND   BELIEF  1G9 

ciently  covered  for  religious  purposes  by  the 
one  article,  "  I  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of 
sins."  For  us  the  supreme  thing  is  salvation  in 
the  ethical  and  spii-itual  sense.  This  is  all  we 
have  practically  to  deal  with,  and  the  one  thing 
at  which  we  should  aim.  Now  what  is  the  rela- 
tion of  belief  to  salvation  in  this  spiritual 
sense  ?  Or  what  is  the  relation  of  belief  to  the 
spiritual  restoration,  or  unfolding  and  upbuild- 
ing of  men  in  spiritual  life  ? 

Put  in  this  way  we  no  longer  have  a  problem 
of  artificial  doctrine,  but  one  of  living  moral 
and  spiritual  psychology.  Of  course  belief  here 
means  not  the  act  of  believing,  but  the  thing 
believed.  It  is  the  intellectual  contents  of  our 
religion.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  St.  Jude  uses 
it  when  he  says,  "  But  ye,  beloved,  building 
yourselves  up  on  your  most  holy  faith,  keep 
yourselves  in  the  love  of  God."  Here  the  faith 
is  the  things  believed,  and  they  are  presented 
as  the  foundation  on  which  we  are  to  build 
ourselves  up  in  spiritual  life.  At  once  the  ne- 
cessity of  some  belief  as  creed  or  dogma  ap- 
pears ;  for  a  religion  without  a  creed  in  this 


170  THE  ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

sense  is  a  religion  without  anything  for  intel- 
ligence, a  religion,  therefore,  which  can  never 
command  the  assent  or  reverence  of  intelli- 
gence. In  strictness,  such  a  religion  must  be 
speechless.  It  could  not  get  beyond  interjec- 
tions and  inarticulate  outcries.  Religion  could 
not  exist  even  as  a  superstition  without  some 
intellectual  contents ;  and  religion  can  guard 
itself  against  superstition  and  aberration  only 
as  it  has  rational  contents  and  assumes  a  ra- 
tional form.  When,  then,  we  hear  religion 
without  dogma  recommended,  we  must  con- 
clude that  the  objection  is  not  to  dogma  in 
general,  but  to  some  specific  dogma,  or  else 
that  we  are  listening  to  random  and  ignorant 
talk.  Belief  in  the  sense  of  definite  doctrine 
is  absolutely  necessary  if  religion  is  to  have 
anything  for  intelligence. 

The  supreme  practical  importance  of  what 
men  believe  appears  when  we  look  at  the  non- 
Christian  peoples.  Their  religious  misbeliefs 
are  one  great  source  of  their  woes ;  and  in 
these  misbeliefs  the  thwarting,  paralyzing,  and 
defilins:  influences  of  their  life  have  concen- 


SALVATION  AND   BELIEF  171 

trated  and  incarnated  themselves.  They  have 
misbeliefs  about  God  and  man,  and  the  mean- 
ing and  outcome  of  life.  Out  of  these  mis- 
beliefs grow  countless  evils  ;  and  the  people 
sit  in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death,  being 
bound  in  affliction  and  iron.  There  is  no  hope 
for  them  until  these  blinding-  and  withering: 
and  destructive  superstitions  are  replaced  by 
the  good  views  of  God,  by  those  conceptions 
of  God  and  his  purposes  concerning  us,  and 
by  those  thoughts  of  our  life,  its  meaning  and 
outcome,  which  we  have  learned  from  the  Chris- 
tian revelation.  And  the  power  and  work  of 
Christianity  depend  essentially  on  the  concep- 
tion of  God  which  it  has  brought  to  us  and 
made  familiar.  This  is  the  most  holy  faith,  in 
the  inspiration  of  which  it  has  made  history 
and  remade  men. 

It  is,  then,  an  error  verging  on  the  extreme 
of  thoughtlessness  and  even  of  illiteracy,  to 
hold  that  it  is  of  no  importance  what  a  man  or 
a  community  believes.  Indian  pantheism  will 
inevitably  make  India.  Christian  theism  really 
held  must  work  out  into  Christian  civilization. 


172  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

This  notion  of  the  practical  unimportance  of 
belief  would  never  have  been  held  but  for  an 
abstract  and  non-ethical  conception  of  salva- 
tion, and  the  further  fancy  that  the  salvation 
of  the  heathen  is  somehow  bound  up  with 
this  view. 

But  because  some  doctrine  is  necessary  if 
religion  is  to  have  anything  for  intelligence,  it 
does  not  follow  that  all  dogmas  are  necessary 
or  important.  The  dogmatic  activity  of  theo- 
logians has  often  produced  dogmas  of  no  prac- 
tical value ;  and  affirmation  has  been  pushed 
beyond  any  possible  knowledge.  This  is  one 
fact  which  has  brought  the  words  dogma  and 
doctrine  into  ill-repute.  Again,  religion  on 
the  creedal  side  was  largely  made  a  matter  of 
correct  belief,  rather  than  of  life.  Thus  arose 
what  might  be  called  the  heresy  of  orthodoxy  j 
which  St.  James  rather  sharply  set  aside  by 
saying,  "  The  devils  also  believe  and  tremble." 
Thus  orthodoxy  became  a  barren  rationalism. 
Moreover,  the  lack  of  a  critical  philosophy 
and  of  insight  into  the  nature  of  language 
and  of  salvation  led  to  a  confident  exegesis 


SALVATION  AND  BELIEF  173 

and  to  dogmatic  constructions  which  are  no 
Ion  O'er  possible.  We  read  the  works  of  this 
sort  with  which  theological  libraries  abound, 
and  we  readily  understand  the  hostility  to 
dosrnia  which  is  so  marked  in  our  time.  We 
have  outgrown  a  large  part  of  the  dogmas 
which  have  been  historically  held,  because  we 
have  discerned  in  many  cases  their  baseless- 
ness, and,  in  other  cases,  their  abstract  and 
unfruitful  nature.  Consider  a  work  made  up 
of  matter  like  the  following:  "Theology 
teaches  that  there  are  in  God  one  essence,  two 
processions,  three  persons,  four  relations,  five 
notions,  and  the  circuminsession,  which  the 
Greeks  call  perichoresis."  Consider  also  the 
plans  of  salvation  which  have  figured  so 
largely  in  theology,  and  the  long  debates  con- 
cerning the  order  of  salvation  or  the  proper 
order  of  repentance,  faith,  regeneration,  for- 
giveness, adoption,  etc.  Consider,  too,  the 
various  kinds  of  faith  which  have  to  be  dis- 
tinguished in  order  to  make  the  "  plan  '* 
work.  Within  five  years  in  a  theological  school 
of  one   of  the  minor  denominations  in  the 


174  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

middle  west,  a  professor  has  been  complained 
of  for  not  putting  the  order  just  right.  For- 
tunately, being  of  an  accommodating  disposi- 
tion, he  promised  to  adjust  matters ;  and  an 
imminent  heresy  trial  was  avoided.  It  is  no 
wonder  when  doctrines  have  so  largely  been 
of  this  barren  rationalizing  type,  that  there 
should  be  a  strong  aversion  to  it.  And  men 
like  Schleiermacher  and  Wesley  and  even 
Ritschl  have  done  religion  a  great  service  by 
recalling  it  to  life  and  experience,  as  its  true 
foundation  and  justification. 

We  must  not,  however,  let  the  aberrations 
and  excesses  of  the  dogmatists  conceal  from 
us  the  fact  that  the  right  apprehension  and 
formulation  of  Christian  truth  is  a  matter  of 
great  practical  importance  for  the  spiritual 
life.  As  I  have  said  before,  a  religion  without 
doctrines  is  a  religion  with  nothing  for  intel- 
ligence, and  which  therefore  must  be  speech- 
less. It  must  always  be  an  important  duty  of 
the  Christian  church  to  maintain  pure  doc- 
trine. It  must  beware  of  a  deistic  conception 
of  transcendence  which  makes  an  impassable 


SALVATION   AND   BELIEF  175 

gulf  between  God  and  man.  It  must  equally 
beware  of  a  pantheistic  immanence  which 
cancels  all  distinctions  and  lands  us  in  the 
slough  of  the  Indian  religions.  It  must  be- 
ware of  a  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  which 
makes  it  only  a  Docetic  illusion,  or  a  Socinian 
denial.  It  must  beware  of  an  abstract  ethical 
conception  of  God  which  leaves  no  place  for 
love ;  and  it  must  equally  beware  of  a  univer- 
sal good-naturedness  which  dissolves  away  all 
moral  law.  But  in  insisting  on  doctrine  we 
must  remember  that  there  are  doctrines  and 
doctrines,  and  must  confine  ourselves  to  the 
fundamental  Christian  facts  rather  than  to 
theological  theories  about  the  facts.  Our 
creeds  in  the  future  will  be  very  much  shorter 
than  they  have  been  in  the  past.  We  shall  re- 
duce them  to  the  fundamental  working  doc- 
trines, something  after  the  fashion  of  the 
Apostles'  Creed ;  and  we  shall  do  this  from 
two  convictions.  First,  the  power  and  life  of 
Christianity  lie  altogether  in  those  parts  of 
the  creed  which  express  the  great  Christian 
facts,  and  not  in  those  parts  which  only  ex- 


176  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

press  our  theories  about  the  facts.  Secondly, 
these  theories,  supposing  them  established, 
are  practically  barren  and  unfruitful. 

So  much  for  the  relation  of  belief  to  salva- 
tion. Let  us  next  consider  the  relation  of  sal- 
vation to  belief. 

II 

Our  great  fundamental  human  beliefs  in 
every  field  are  essentially  outgrowths  and  for- 
mulations of  life,  rather  than  conclusions  of 
a  syllogism.  They  find  their  original  source 
and  their  continued  support  in  living,  rather 
than  in  academic  thinking.  This  insight  into 
the  practical  and  vital  nature  of  belief  is  one 
of  the  great  achievements  of  later  philosophic 
thought.  The  leading  error  of  the  dogmatist  in 
this  matter  has  been  to  lay  chief  emphasis  on 
intellectual  instruction  and  ratiocinative  pro- 
cesses as  sources  of  belief ;  as  if  by  a  series  of 
well-chosen  syllogisms  we  could  put  to  flight 
all  doubters  and  shut  man  up  to  faith.  The 
implication  was  that  matter  which  could  not 
be  thus  formally  treated  and  argued  out  is 
unworthy  of  belief.  This  is  the  fancy  which 


SALVATION  AND   BELIEF  177 

underlies  all    rationalistic   schemes,  religious 
and  irreligious  alike. 

But  a  better  doctrine  of  belief  has  made 
such  schemes  obsolete.  We  have  come  to  see 
that  beHef  roots  in  life  rather  than  in  logic. 
What  a  man  believes  will  depend  less  upon 
the  acuteness  of  his  intellect  than  upon  the 
manner  of  man  he  is,  the  fundamental  interests 
and  tendencies  of  his  nature.  In  the  ethical, 
social,  political,  scientific  fields,  as  well  as  in 
reliirion,  life  is  first  and  fundamental.  As  this 
life  unfolds,  the  understanding  seeks  to  for- 
mulate and  express  it ;  but  the  w^ork  of  the 
understanding  is  merely  regulative.  It  gives 
form  to  a  content  which  it  cannot  produce ; 
and  faith  itself  rests  at  last  not  on  a  logical 
cogency  of  argumentation,  but  on  the  energy 
of  the  life  in  which  it  roots.  Our  fundamental 
needs  and  interests  are  the  driving  and  direc- 
tive force  of  life,  and  if  these  were  lacking 
mere  reasoning  could  do  nothing.  It  would 
float  in  a  vacuum.  Without  cognitive  inter- 
ests, there  would  be  no  science  or  philosophy; 
without  moral  interests,  there  would  be   no 


178  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

ethics ;  witliout  religious  interests,  there  would 
be  no  religion.  It  is  the  pure  in  heart  who 
see  God.  The  meek  are  guided  in  judgment. 
Those  who  do  his  will  know  of  the  doctrine. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  natural  man  receiveth 
not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God ;  neither 
can  he  know  them  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned.  In  short,  all  truth  that  takes  hold 
on  life  is  empty  or  non-existent  apart  from 
the  life  in  which  it  roots.  Thus  life  becomes 
in  a  very  important  sense  at  once  the  source 
and  test  of  doctrine,  religious  and  all  other 
alike. 

This,  however,  does  not  mean  that  we  can 
simply  read  off  from  the  life  of  the  Christian 
community  the  sufficient  formulas  of  faith. 
The  matter  is  more  complex  than  this.  We 
should  rather  say  that  life  and  doctrine  de- 
velop together.  As  there  can  be  no  effective 
doctrine  without  life,  so  conversely  life  will 
not  get  far  without  doctrine.  Apart  from  doc- 
trine life  has  no  clear  consciousness  of  its  own 
needs  and  tendencies,  and  often  misses  the 
way  from  lack  of  self-understanding.  It  comes 


SALVATION  AND   BELIEF  179 

out  into  clear  self-consciousness  only  as  its 
contents  and  implications  are  formulated  and 
expressed.  From  this  point  of  view  it  is  a 
great  step  forward  when  an  instinctive  practi- 
cal assumption  is  expressed  in  a  clear  doctrinal 
statement.  Then  first  faith  begins  to  under- 
stand itself  and  secures  a  content  for  the  in- 
tellect and  a  formula  for  practice.  Some  of 
the  early  creeds  were  great  gains  to  Christianity 
in  this  way,  as  they  first  made  clear  to  the 
Church  its  intellectual  foundation.  It  is,  then, 
a  mistake  to  divorce  the  practical  life  from 
the  intellectual,  or  to  divorce  belief  from  con- 
duct. They  are  really  only  the  opposite  poles 
or  aspects  of  the  one  indivisible  religious  life  ; 
and  to  ignore  or  depreciate  either  is  to  injure 
both.  Where  there  is  no  religious  life,  doctrine 
will  become  a  withered  formula ;  and  where 
there  is  no  rational  formulation  of  doctrine, 
the  religious  life  will  fail  of  its  true  develop- 
ment and  will  be  in  serious  danger  of  losing 
itself  in  crippling  and  debasing  superstition. 
Religion  in  the  dark  of  ignorance  and  without 
the  liirht  of  intelli2:ence  can  never  be  a  whole- 


180  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

some  growth.  There  will  always  be,  then,  a 
place  and  an  important  function  for  religious 
and  theological  thought.  Form  without  life  is 
husk  and  chaff,  but  life  which  does  not  em- 
body itself  in  its  appropriate  form  must  perish. 
We  shall  not,  indeed,  go  back  to  the  Atha- 
nasian  creed  with  its  damnatory  clauses.  We 
shall  not  deny  the  Christian  character  of  men 
whose  conception  of  Christian  truth  seems  to 
us  imperfect,  so  long  as  they  are  working  the 
works  of  righteousness.  But  none  the  less  we 
shall  also  strive  to  maintain  the  purity  of  es- 
sential Christian  teaching,  because  we  know 
that  sooner  or  later  fundamental  errors  of  be- 
lief must  reproduce  themselves  in  practice. 

This  practical  nature  of  belief  leads  to  sev- 
eral important  inferences  for  the  Christian 
teacher.  A  large  part  of  belief  has  its  origin 
in  life.  It  follows  that  where  the  appropriate 
life  is  lacking,  the  belief  will  not  spring  up, 
or  will  die  out.  Science  could  not  develop 
among  savages,  and  if  it  were  planted  among 
them  from  without  it  would  soon  perish.  The 
necessary  cognitive  life  and  interests  would  be 


SALVATION   AND   BELIEF  181 

lackmof.  The  same  is  true  of  Christian  faith. 
The  supreme  condition  of  its  effective  spread 
is  the  Christian  community  in  which  Christian 
principles  are  in  some  measure  realized.  Ar- 
gument counts  for  little  in  the  world  com- 
pared with  personal  influence,  imitation,  con- 
tagion. No  high  belief  would  be  possible  in  a 
world  of  utterly  mean  and  selfish  men ;  and 
no  low  belief  could  long  maintain  itself  in  a 
world  of  practical  saints.  One  great  obstacle 
to  the  spread  of  Christianity  is  Christians ; 
and  the  supreme  condition  of  its  spread  is 
the  development  of  a  higher  type  of  practi- 
cal Christians.  The  deepest  things  cannot 
be  argued  out;  they  must  be  seen  in  life, 
and  then  they  justify  themselves.  Christian 
climate,  Christian  atmosphere.  Christian  ex- 
ample are  the  things  without  which  Christian 
teaching  must  always  be  ineffective  and 
futile. 

Again,  life  as  a  whole  is  so  complex  and 
many-sided  that  what  we  find  in  it  must  de- 
pend largely  on  ourselves  and  what  we  seek. 
We  must  never  forget  the  scholastic  maxim. 


182  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

"  Whatever  is  received,  is  received  after  the 
manner  or  nature  of  the  recipient."  In  an 
important  sense  we  find  ourselves  in  life ;  that 
is,  we  interpret  life  in  accordance  with  our 
own  aims  and  interests.  Our  fundamental  be- 
liefs are  never  things  which  can  be  technically 
proved.  They  are  of  the  nature  of  choices. 
They  represent  our  assumptions,  or  postulates, 
or  practical  platform,  or  the  things  for  which 
we  stand.  Or  rather,  they  represent  us.  They 
reveal  the  tendencies  of  our  nature,  our  affini- 
ties, the  things  we  like  or  wish  to  be.  Such 
beliefs  can  never  be  deduced  or  tested  by  syl- 
logistic rules.  The  underlying  fact  is  a  vital 
process,  rather  than  a  logical  one.  At  bottom 
we  have  competing  tendencies  in  life  or  con- 
flictinof  theories  in  life  ;  and  how  we  decide 
between  them  will  depend  mainly  upon  the 
moral  personality.  The  beatitudes  can  never 
be  proved  by  argument.  They  are  forever  false 
to  the  Gentiles,  and  forever  true  to  the  chil- 
dren of  the  kino-dom. 

Finally,  we  must  note  that  a  large  part  of 
belief  becomes  real  only  in  life.  It  is  a  curious 


SALVATION   AND   BELIEF  183 

fact  that  truths  which  bear  on  practice  become 
vague  and  shadowy  when  abstracted  from 
practice.  They  must  be  translated  into  con- 
duct before  they  become  real  or  acquire  any 
power  over  us.  From  the  form  of  human  de- 
velopment the  intellectual  belief  must  begin 
with  hearsay  and  verbal  assent ;  and  the  prob- 
lem for  the  individual  is  to  transfer  these 
assents  to  hearsays  into  living  personal  convic- 
tions. This  can  be  done  only  as  the  beliefs 
are  wrought  into  life,  or  as  life  is  built  around 
them.  The  living  conviction  is  not  a  product 
of  speculation  ;  it  has  to  be  achieved  or  con- 
quered in  life  itself.  Even  faith  in  God  is 
largely  an  assent  rather  than  a  real  convic- 
tion ;  as  appears  from  the  little  practical  hold 
it  often  has  on  men,  whether  as  lawgiving  or 
as  a  source  of  inspiration.  We  begin  our  re- 
ligious life  by  saying,  "  I  believe  in  God  the 
Father  Almiohtv."  That  is  formal  faith. 
When  we  work  this  confession  into  life,  and 
believe  when  hope  is  deferred  and  the  heart  is 
sick,  believe  in  the  face  of  the  hard  and  bit- 
ter tilings  of  life  and  the  sinister  and  despair- 


184  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

provoking  aspects  of  history,  and  trust  him 
though  he  slay  us  —  that  is  real  faith. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  relation  of  belief  and 
life  is  no  simple  thing  to  be  solved  by  any  aca- 
demic and  rationalistic  reflection  ;  it  is  rather 
something  which  takes  us  into  the  depths  of 
our  life  and  being.  Our  real  faith  is  not  the 
formula  we  repeat,  but  the  principles  by  which 
we  live.  We  may  be  practical  atheists  while 
professing  faith  in  God,  and  veritable  heathen 
while  claiming  to  be  Christians.  And  when 
the  theological  formula  is  correct,  we  may 
miss  the  spiritual  truths.  In  the  deepest  sense 
truth  is  revealed  only  when  it  is  understood ; 
and  this  is  possible  only  to  the  prepared  heart. 
The  truth  is  hidden  by  blindness,  or  is  warped 
into  some  image  of  our  narrowness,  until  the 
inner  illumination  is  reached.  Then  unsus- 
pected meanings  break  forth  out  of  the  word, 
and  all  things  are  made  new.  But  God  respects 
our  freedom  in  the  mental  world  as  well  as 
elsewhere.  He  has  made  the  world  of  life  such 
that  those  who  seek  him  with  the  whole  heart 
find  him,  and  also  such  that  those  who  will 


SALVATION   AND   BELIEF  185 

may  go  astray.  The  meek  he  guides  in  judg- 
ment, but  with  the  froward  he  shows  himself 
f  roward.  The  kingdom  of  truth  is  inaccessible 
to  all  prejudice,  and  levity,  and  indifference, 
whether  in  science  or  in  religion. 

Therefore,  let  us  keep  our  hearts  with  all 
dilisrence,  for  out  of  them  are  the  issues  of 
Hfe. 


VllI 

THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  THE 
WORLD 


VIII 

THE   CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    WORLD 

And  be  not  fashioned  according  to  this  world ;  but  be  ye  trans- 
formed by  the  renewing  of  your  mind,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is 
the  good  and  acceptable  and  perfect  will  of  God.  —  Homans  12 : 2. 

In  the  previous  verse  St.  Paul  has  urged  his 
readers  to  offer  themselves  in  holy  and  living 
sacrifice  to  God  as  their  rational  and  spiritual 
worship.  And  now  he  goes  on  to  exhort  them 
not  to  form  or  fashion  themselves  after  the 
pattern  of  the  world,  but  to  transform  them- 
selves by  an  inward  mental  renewal,  so  that 
they  should  have  experience  of  the  will  of 
God,  as  the  thing  which  is  good  and  accept- 
able and  perfect.  By  this  renewing  of  their 
minds  they  were  to  be  transfigured  or  meta- 
morphosed from  within,  as  the  new  life  built 
for  itself  an  appropriate  form  and  manifesta- 
tion. 

I  make  this  text  the  basis  for  a  consideration 
of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  world,  a  sub- 


190  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

ject  on  which  there  is  not  a  Httle  confusion 
that  is  often  misleading  and  sometimes  harm- 
fuh 

This  term  world  has  a  great  variety  of 
meanings  in  its  scriptural  use.  Sometimes  it 
means  simply  the  physical  earth.  "  The  world 
also  is  established  that  it  cannot  be  moved." 
Sometimes  it  means  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth.  Sometimes  it  means  the  present  order 
of  human  life  and  history,  as  in  the  antithesis 
of  the  world  that  now  is  to  that  which  is  to 
come.  Very  often  it  is  spoken  of  as  an  evil 
power,  or  organization,  opposed  to  God  and 
hostile  to  spiritual  life.  Examples  are,  "•  The 
prince  of  the  world  "  ;  "  If  the  world  hate  you, 
ye  know  that  it  hated  me  before  it  hated 
you  "  ;  "  The  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity 
with  God";  "I  have  overcome  the  world"; 
"  Love  not  the  world  "  ;  "  If  any  man  love  the 
world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him." 
In  these  cases  the  world  is  variously  conceived, 
but  always  as  a  hostile  spiritual  power  or  or- 
ganization which  is  the  enemy  of  God  and 
good  men ;  or  at  least  as  something  which,  if 


CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF  THE    WORLD     191 

not  actively  and  positively  opposed  to  spiritual 
living,  is  no  friend  to  grace,  and  its  influence 
all  makes  in  the  downward  direction.  The 
result  of  this  varied  usage  of  the  term  is  a  deal 
of  confusion  in  popular  thought,  both  reli- 
gious and  irreligious. 

Enliofhtened  relio'ion  denounces  the  world 
and  worldliness,  but  not  always  with  proper 
discrimination.  And  enlightened  irreligion, 
seeing  that  innocent  things  are  often  unwisely 
condemned  as  worldly,  concludes  that  this 
evil  world  of  which  we  often  hear  in  the 
churches  is  only  a  fiction  of  theology.  Both 
parties  are  mistaken  ;  and  one  of  the  needs  of 
our  time  is  to  clear  up  our  thought  in  this 
matter. 

One  of  the  most  grievous  and  pernicious 
blunders  in  practical  religion  has  been  the 
adoption  of  the  false  antithesis  between  things 
secular  and  things  religious.  In  this  way  the 
fancy  was  formed  and  became  dominant  that 
religion  is  an  interest  by  itself,  a  kind  of  de- 
tached movement  in  a  non-communicating 
apartment  of  the  mind,  and   that  religious 


192  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

work  consists  of  the  formal  exercises  of  piety, 
such  as  prayer,  Bible-reading,  church  attend- 
ance, public  and  private  worship,  the  adminis- 
tration of  church  matters,  etc.  This  notion  to 
a  large  extent  still  rules  the  popular  thought 
even  of  the  Protestant  churches.  Of  religfion 
as  a  principle  which  should  rule  all  living  and 
make  all  life  religious,  there  has  been,  taking 
the  church  as  a  whole,  little  apprehension  and 
still  less  realization. 

Thus  the  secular  was  set  aside  as  non-re- 
ligious ;  and  the  next  step,  which  was  really 
only  a  part  of  the  same  thing,  was  to  view  the 
secular  as  worldly,  or  to  identify  it  with  the 
world.  Certainly  secular  activity  is  busied 
with  worldly  things,  with  trade  and  manu- 
facture, and  transportation,  and  science,  and 
education,  and  all  the  enormously  complex 
industry  needed  to  keep  the  civilized  world 
a-going  and  save  it  from  falling  back  into 
barbarism.  Of  course  then  it  is  worldly,  and 
as  such  must  be  unfriendly,  if  not  hostile,  to 
religion.  It  was  this  blunder  partly  which  led 
to  the  great  ascetic  movements  in  the  Asiatic 


CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE    OF   THE   WORLD     193 

religions  and  in  the  early  and  medieval 
Christian  church.  It  was  this  blunder  which 
withdrew  and  withdraws  multitudes  of  men 
and  women  from  the  wholesome  and  useful 
work  of  life  to  engage  in  the  idle  and  barren 
works  of  a  factitious  religiosity.  It  is  this 
blunder  of  which  we  even  now  often  hear 
echoes  in  ignorant  disparagement  of  wealth 
and  learning  and  culture  and  refinement,  in 
pharisaic  judgment  of  men  who  are  out  in  the 
open  field  of  the  world,  doing  the  work  that 
must  be  done  if  humanity  is  to  be  helped  for- 
ward into  better  conditions. 

By  the  secular  here  I  mean  that  body  of 
instincts  and  impulses  and  needs,  and  corre- 
sponding activities  and  agencies  and  products, 
which  spring  out  of  the  human  constitution 
and  our  relations  to  one  another  and  to  the 
physical  world.  The  housing,  feeding,  and 
clothing  of  the  race  are  a  fundamental  part 
of  it.  Provision  for  education,  for  the  social 
structure,  for  political  development  is  equally 
sisfnificant.  The  enormous  routine  work  of 
every  day  whereby  ever-recurring  wants    are 


194  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

ceaselessly  met,  and  human  life  made  pos- 
sible, is  basal.  Thus  the  secular  realm  is  as 
complex  as  humanity,  being  but  a  reflex  of 
human  nature  and  human  needs  in  the  circum- 
stances of  our  human  hfe.  And  it  represents 
God's  will  for  humanity.  No  part  of  it  can  be 
left  out  of  human  life  without  calamity.  If 
we  leave  out  the  elementary  industries,  the 
race  perishes  at  once  from  hunger  and  cold. 
If  we  leave  out  the  social  and  political  organ- 
ization, the  race  is  confined  to  savage  condi- 
tions. If  we  leave  out  transportation  and 
commerce  and  the  resulting  exchange  of  ideas 
and  products,  only  a  wretched  society  would 
be  possible.  If  we  leave  out  education  and  sci- 
ence, the  race  remains  in  hopeless  ignorance, 
unstirred  by  any  inspiration  or  aspiration. 
If  we  leave  out  the  ministries  of  art  and 
beauty,  the  race  could  attain  only  to  a  dull, 
monotonous  round  of  low  utilities.  We  are 
then  to  see  in  the  secular  order  the  ordinance 
of  God  and  his  will  concerning  us.  He  gives 
it  to  us  for  our  development  into  life,  as  the 
means  by  which  we  realize  ourselves,  and  by 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  THE   WORLD      195 

which  the  human  order  is  made  possible.  And 
not  without  blasphemy  can  we  view  it  as  com- 
mon or  unclean,  or  turn  from  it  as  something 
essentially  hostile  to  our  spiritual  life.  Not 
apart  from  the  secular  life,  but  in  that  life,  are 
we  to  work  the  will  of  God  by  making  that 
will  the  inspiring  principle  and  standard  of 
all  our  work. 

Setting  aside  then  as  false  and  blasphemous 
the  notion  that  would  identify  the  world  of 
nature  and  the  world  of  human  life  with  the 
forbidden  world  of  religious  teaching,  we  next 
ask.  What  is  the  world  to  which  we  are  not  to 
conform  ourselves  ?  What  is  that  world,  con- 
formity to  which  is  incompatible  with  the  true 
life  of  the  spirit  and  love  of  the  Father  ?  Is  it 
a  fiction  of  theology,  or  is  it  a  serious  reality 
and  a  dangerous  enemy  of  our  souls  ? 

In  reply  I  point  out  that  woddliness  is  a 
spirit,  a  way  of  looking  at  and  valuing  things, 
a  direction  of  thought  and  desire  and  devo- 
tion. Our  Lord  said  of  the  Gentiles  that  they 
were  taken  up  with  the  questions,  "  What 
shall  we  eat?  What  shall  we  drink?    And 


196  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed  ?  "  They  had 
little  thought  beyond  these  things.  And  the 
Saviour  warned  his  disciples,  not  against  eat- 
ing and  drinking,  but  against  undue  anxiety 
in  connection  therewith,  against  being  so  im- 
mersed therein  as  to  find  nothing  else  in  life. 
On  the  contrary,  they  were  to  subordinate  this 
outward  life  to  the  will  of  God  by  seeking 
first,  or  making  fundamental,  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  his  righteousness. 

Now  in  this  Gentile  view  we  have  the  root 
of  worldliness.  It  is  primarily  and  essentially 
a  devotion  to  the  sensuous  and  outward  life 
unbalanced  by  any  higher  spiritual  insight  or 
aspiration.  In  the  divine  plan  this  outward  life 
has  its  place  and  function.  "Your  heavenly 
Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  these 
thinofs."  But  when  the  outward  life  is  made 
supreme,  then  spiritual  confusion  and  disaster 
soon  result.  The  lower  nature  flowers  out  into 
the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and 
the  pride  of  life.  And  this  view  next  pervades 
society,  organizes  itself,  develops  into  social 
forms,  evolves  a  practical  philosophy  of  living, 


CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF  THE   WORLD     197 

and,  unresisted,  tends  to  become  dominant 
and  supreme.  Nor  does  it  end  here,  for  this 
movement  is  downward.  Beginning  by  being 
earthly  and  sensuous,  it  often  goes  on  to  be- 
come sensual;  and  in  the  development  of  its 
sensual  and  selfish  maxims,  it  not  infrequently 
ends  by  becoming  devilish.  Thus  the  kingdom 
of  iniquity  has  its  foundation  in  the  worldly 
view ;  and  the  essence  of  this  view  is  the 
blindness  to  spiritual  values  and  the  devotion 
to  the  external  and  transitory  aspects  and  in- 
terests of  life.  The  worldly  are  those  who  live 
in  this  spirit  and  are  under  the  influence  of 
this  way  of  thinking.  And  the  world  in  the 
religious  sense  may  mean  either  this  system 
of  thought  and  life,  or  the  body  of  persons 
who  are  possessed  by  this  world  spirit.  Now 
it  is  clear  that  the  world,  as  a  spiritual  enemy, 
is  no  fiction  of  the  pulpit,  but  a  very  real  fact 
and  foe.  The  devotion  to  the  transitory,  the 
outward,  the  unreal  and  the  fictitious,  the 
blindness  or  indifference  to  life's  true  values 
thence  resulting,  and  the  system  of  maxims 
and  judgments  and  ideals  which  spring  up  in 


198  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

accordance  therewith  —  these  things  beset  us 
on  every  side.  The  masses  of  mankind,  the 
Gentiles,  dream  of  nothing  else  and  desire 
nothing  else.  Spiritual  things  are  spiritually 
discerned  ;  and  they  are  of  the  earth,  earthy. 
A  glance  into  the  daily  press  reveals  at  once 
the  prevailing  tastes  and  interests  of  the  com- 
munity. What  a  picture  we  get  of  the  men- 
tality and  morality  and  spirituality  of  men  as 
we  wade  through  the  mass  of  idle  gossip,  the 
details  of  crime,  the  exploitation  of  the  ani- 
mal side  of  our  nature,  the  exhibitions  of  social 
vanity,  the  general  turning  away  from  what  is 
wholesome  and  significant  and  uplifting  in 
life  to  wallow  in  social  garbage  and  idle  van- 
ities. We  hear  of  simian  banquets,  and  of 
functions  where  the  expense  of  the  caterer 
is  carefully  advertised  and  the  costumes  of 
the  guests  are  elaborately  described.  We  see 
wealth  in  utter  brainlessness  and  bad  taste 
disporting  itself  in  hideous  mental  and  moral 
squalor  ;  and  we  see  poverty  looking  on  in 
envious  desire,  as  if  there  were  nothing  great 
beside.  Thus  the  natural  man  unconsciously 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  WORLD     109 

reveals  himself,  and  he  who  runs  may  read. 
What  a  series  of  beatitudes  the  natural  man 
would  write  if  he  were  left  to  himself !  How 
they  would  differ  from  those  pronounced  by 
our  Lord !  To  be  meek  and  pure  in  heart,  to 
see  God  and  to  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness, these  things  do  not  appeal  to  him. 
If  any  one  would  see  how  far  the  spirit  of  the 
world  is  from  the  spirit  of  Christ,  let  him 
compare  a  worldling's  beatitudes  with  those 
of  the  Master.  Let  him  reflect  for  a  moment 
upon  the  things  which  men  passionately  desire 
and  pursue,  the  things  they  crowd  to  see  or 
eagerly  read,  the  things  of  which  they  boast 
and  on  which  they  pride  themselves.  How^ 
grotesque  it  all  seems  to  reason,  how  sad  it 
seems  to  the  enlightened  conscience. 

Nor  do  those  who  are  seeking  to  live  the  life 
of  the  spirit  find  it  by  any  means  easy  to  escape 
or  overcome  the  world.  If  we  should  reflect 
upon  the  movements  of  our  hearts  and  the 
gravitation  of  our  own  desires,  we  should  find 
that  the  world  is  very  much  with  us.  This 
devotion   to   the    outward    appearance,    this 


200  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

measuring  things  by  unreal  and  unchristian 
standards,  haunts  us  all  and  pursues  us  even 
into  the  sanctuary.  How  hard  it  is  to  throw 
off  our  bondage  to  the  opinions  of  men  and 
to  view  all  things  from  the  divine  standpoint, 
to  consider  them  in  their  reality  and  eternal 
significance,  to  use  the  world  without  abusing 
it  or  being  enslaved  by  it.  How  hard  to  judge 
persons  in  their  character,  rather  than  in  their 
circumstances.  How  hard  even  for  the  Chris- 
tian pastor  himself  not  to  become  a  respecter 
of  persons  because  of  different  externals.  Re- 
flection on  these  things  will  soon  convince  us 
that  the  world  as  our  spiritual  foe  is  no  fiction, 
but  a  dread  reality ;  that  conformity  to  it  is 
indeed  enmity  with  God,  that  we  must  over- 
come it  if  we  would  enter  into  life,  and  that 
we  can  overcome  it  only  as  we  are  renewed  in 
our  minds,  that  is,  as  we  get  new  ways  of 
thinking  and  feeling  about  things,  or  as  we 
come  out  from  under  the  illusions  and  mis- 
placed devotions  of  the  worldly  life  into  the 
spiritual  vision  and  loyalty  of  disciples  of 
Christ. 


CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE  OF  THE   WORLD     201 

Worldliness,  then,  is  a  spirit,  a  temper,  a 
mode  of  thought  and  feeling.  It  does  not  con- 
sist in  eating  and  drinking,  —  we  all  must 
eat  and  drink,  —  but  in  finding  the  end  and 
meaning  of  life  in  eating  and  drinking.  It 
does  not  consist  in  being  occupied  with  secu- 
lar things,  —  we  all  must  be  largely  thus  occu- 
pied, —  but  in  pursuing  the  occupation  in  a 
mean  and  sordid  spirit.  It  does  not  consist  in 
the  pursuit  of  wealth,  —  such  pursuit  is  often 
a  Christian  duty,  —  but  in  pursuing  wealth 
as  an  end  in  itself,  or  for  the  pampering  of  the 
flesh  or  the  gratification  of  vanity  or  low  ambi- 
tion. It  does  not  consist  in  delight  in  culture, 
refinement,  beautiful  things,  social  pleasure, 
innocent  amusement,  —  all  these  things  are  to 
be  desired,  and  life  would  be  barren  and  in- 
human without  them,  —  but  in  such  submer- 
sion in  these  things  that  the  supreme  aim  of 
life  is  ignored  or  lost  sight  of.  The  Son  of 
man  came  eating  and  drinking,  graciously 
sharing  in  the  common  lot  and  looking  with 
kindly  eye  upon  life's  innocent  joys,  but  he 
was  not  worldly  on  that  account.  In   short. 


202  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

worldliness  as  a  spirit  is  entirely  independent 
of  conditions  and  circumstances.  The  very 
poor  may  be  as  worldly  as  the  very  rich  ;  the 
very  ignorant  may  be  as  worldly  as  the  most 
learned.  The  crudest  and  most  unrefined  so- 
ciety may  show  as  utter  worldliness  as  the 
most  cultured.  The  same  devotion  to  the  out- 
ward, the  same  fictitious  standards  of  value, 
may  be  found  in  all  classes,  and  commonly 
appear  in  their  most  revolting  vulgarity  where 
there  is  least  external  culture  and  refinement 
to  gild  them.  The  most  inveterate  class  dis- 
tinctions and  vanities  are  often  found  among 
the  abjectly  poor  and  ignorant ;  and  the  great 
source  of  the  envy  of  the  poor  against  the 
rich  is  their  own  lack  of  self-respect;  that 
is,  their  measurement  of  life  by  external  or 
worldly  standards.  And  many  a  damnation  of 
worldliness  is  simply  the  envious  utterance  of 
poverty,  or  ignorance,  or  bad  taste,  seeking 
to  disguise  itself  under  the  hypocritical  as- 
sumption of  superior  spirituality.  But  we  are 
not  spiritual  because  we  are  poor,  or  worldly 
because  we  are  rich.  We  are  spiritual,  if  at  all, 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  WORLD     203 

because  we  measure  values  by  the  Christian 
standard ;  and  we  are  worldly,  if  at  all, 
because  we  measure  values  by  the  worldly 
standard. 

Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves,  then.  World- 
liness  is  a  spirit,  and  is  equally  compatible 
with  all  external  conditions.  It  is  quite  as 
compatible  with  poverty  as  with  riches,  with 
ignorance  as  with  learning,  with  bad  taste  as 
with  refinement,  with  a  church  as  with  a 
business  corporation,  with  religious  exercises 
as  with  secular  pursuits,  with  the  minister's 
occupation  as  with  any  other.  There  is  no 
place  or  occupation  or  condition  in  the  human 
world  into  which  worldliness  may  not  enter. 
Some  of  the  worldliest  men  I  have  ever  known 
were  ministers,  and  some  of  the  most  odious 
exhibitions  of  worldliness  are  to  be  found  in 
the  house  of  God.  The  minister  who  prays  to  be 
heard  of  men,  whose  interest  in  his  work  is  for 
what  he  can  make  out  of  it,  who  subordinates 
everything  to  his  own  selfish  advancement,  is 
as  worldly  in  spirit  as  any  pothouse  politician, 
and  still  more  odious  to  God  because  of  the 


204  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

added  sacrilege.  The  church,  also,  that  is 
more  concerned  for  style  and  social  form  and 
prestige,  than  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  is  an 
incarnation  of  worldliness  and  one  of  its  most 
hideous  manifestations.  There  is,  then,  nothing 
that  may  not  be  made  worldly  by  the  worldly 
spirit.  And  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no 
place  or  occupation  or  condition  in  the  human 
world,  which  is  not  immoral,  that  may  not  be 
fitted  with  the  spiritual  mind  and  so  related 
to  the  divine  will  as  to  bless  man  and  glorify 
God.  For  as  worldliness  may  be  found  in  all 
places  and  conditions,  so  spirituality  may  be 
found  in  the  same.  In  both  cases  it  is  nothing 
external,  but  an  inner  attitude  of  the  spirit. 

And  this  leads  to  another  reflection.  World- 
liness being  a  spirit,  non-conformity  thereto  is 
not  to  be  sought  in,  nor  obtained  by,  odd  and 
peculiar  manners,  strange  modes  of  dress  or 
habits  of  speech,  and  similar  mechanical  de- 
vices, but  by  renouncing  the  worldly  spirit  and 
by  living  in  the  Christian  thought  of  life  audits 
meaning  and  value.  That  is,  we  must  replace 
the  worldly  devotion  to  the  external  and  transi- 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  WORLD     205 

tory  by  the  Christian  devotion  to  the  real  and 
abiding  and  eternal.  Here,  too,  great  blunders 
have  been  made  in  religious  history.  Many 
have  thought  to  express  non-conformity  to  the 
■world  by  withdrawing  from  secular  pursuits, 
by  artificial  and  affected  speech,  by  ignoring 
the  familiar  conventions  of  social  intercourse, 
and  by  strange  forms  of  dress.  Some  of  these 
things  have  been  made  special  marks  of  differ- 
entiation from  the  world  by  various  religious 
bodies,  and  have  been  pursued  into  minute 
detail  by  the  more  mechanically  minded.  All 
this  shows  a  lamentable  misunderstanding  of 
the  properly  spiritual  nature  of  both  worldli- 
ness  and  Christianity. 

Thus  we  have  seen  what  the  world  is.  It 
is  not  the  secular  life,  as  many  have  falsely 
imagined;  nor  is  it  a  theological  fiction,  as 
others  have  supposed ;  but  it  is  the  incarna- 
tion of  a  spirit,  and  the  organization  of  those 
who  live  in  that  spirit  and  by  its  aims  and 
maxims  and  principles.  And  the  danger  of 
conformity  to  it  becomes  apparent.  It  is  the 
assumption  of   forces  and  tendencies  which 


206  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

make  for  spiritual  degradation  and  death.  It 
is  clear  as  the  sun  that  the  friendship  of  the 
world  must  be  enmity  with  God,  and  that  if 
any  man  love  the  world  the  love  of  the 
Father  is  not  in  him. 

So  much  for  the  negative  side  of  the  matter; 
now  a  word  on  the  positive  command.  We  are 
not  to  fashion  ourselves  on  a  worldly  pattern, 
but  we  are  to  metamorphose  ourselves  (the 
Greek  word  here  is  the  original  of  our  word 
metamorphose)  in  the  making  new  of  our  minds, 
so  that  we  may  prove  by  experiment,  or  prac- 
tical test,  the  thing  which  is  good,  acceptable, 
and  perfect,  which  is  the  will  of  God.  In  other 
words,  we  are  to  enter  into  the  thought  and 
spirit  of  Christ.  We  are  to  view  life  from  his 
standpoint,  to  judge  it  by  his  standards,  to 
live  it  in  his  spirit.  Thus  the  mind  is  renewed 
or  made  new.  Its  contents  are  changed.  Its 
affections  are  rightly  directed.  Its  devotion 
is  given  to  the  right  things.  It  is  brought  out 
from  worldly  bondage  to  things  seen  and  tem- 
poral, and  is  fixed  on  things  unseen  and  eter- 
nal. Thus  it  comes  to  know  the  truth,  and  the 


CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF  THE  WORLD     207 

truth  makes  it  free — free  from  the  opinions 
of  men,  free  from  worldly  illusions,  free  from 
the  clamor  of  passion  and  low  ambition.  It 
sees  through  and  rises  above  all  these  things 
as  it  regards  them  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
eternal.  And  as  it  views  all  things  under  the 
form  of  the  eternal,  it  becomes  itself  allied  to 
the  same.  "  The  world  passeth  away,  and  the 
lust  thereof:  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of 
God  abideth  for  ever." 

Thus  the  mind  is  made  new.  Of  course  in 
this  work  we  need  the  divine  help,  but  the 
renewal  of  the  mind  consists  in  bringing  about 
this  condition  of  things.  Equally  of  course  the 
work  is  not  completed  at  once  ;  it  is  a  process, 
as  the  Greek  word  shows.  And  this  inward  pro- 
cess, like  a  living  and  organic  principle,  is  to 
metamorphose  us,  not  by  external  and  mechani- 
cal mending,  but  by  a  vital  growth  from  within 
so  that  the  renewed  mind  manifests  itself  in  a 
transfijrured  life.  Thus  Christ  himself  is  formed 
in  us,  the  hope  of  glory. 

Let  us  hear  the  solemn  words  of  the  apostle : 
"  Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that 


208  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

are  in  the  world.  I£  any  man  love  the  world, 
the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him.  For  all 
that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and 
the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  vainglory  of  life, 
is  not  of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world.  And 
the  world  passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof: 
but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for- 


ever. 


IX 

OBEDIENCE:  THE  TEST  OF  DISCIPLESHIP 


IX 


OBEDIENCE    THE    TEST    OF   DISCIPLESHIP 

And  hereby  we  know  that  we  know  him,  if  we  keep  his  com- 
mandraents.  He  that  saith,  I  know  bim,  and  keepeth  not  hia 
commandments,  is  a  liar,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  him."  —  I  John 
2:3-4. 

Obedience  is  the  test  of  religion.  This  is 
what  the  Lord  requires  of  us,  and  this  is  all 
the  Lord  requires  of  us,  the  filial  spirit  issuing 
in  lives  of  obedience  to  his  commandments. 

Great  care  was  shown  by  our  Lord  and  his 
disciples  to  make  this  matter  clear,  so  that  no 
one  should  have  any  warrant  for  thinking  that 
anything  else  whatever  could  take  the  place 
of  obedience.  Note  the  words  of  our  Lord : 
"Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord, 
Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ; 
but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which 
is  in  heaven.  Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day. 
Lord,  Lord,  did  we  not  prophesy  by  thy  name, 
and  by  thy  name  cast  out  devils,  and  by  thy 
name  do   many   mighty  works?  '  And   then 


212  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you: 
depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity."  "  If 
ye  love  me,  ye  will  keep  my  commandments," 
"  Ye  are  my  friends  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  com- 
mand you."  Thus  obedience  is  made  the  test 
of  love,  of  friendship,  and  of  being  in  the 
kingdom.  Likewise,  the  Apostle  John  is  pecu- 
liarly strenuous  in  this  matter  in  the  letter 
from  which  our  text  is  chosen.  The  text  itself 
is  a  striking  instance.  Again,  "  My  little  chil- 
dren, let  no  man  lead  you  astray :  he  that 
doeth  righteousness  is  righteous,  even  as  he  is 
riofhteous ;  he  that  committeth  sin  is  of  the 
devil."  "  In  this  the  children  of  God  are  mani- 
fest, and  the  children  of  the  devil.  Whosoever 
doeth  not  righteousness  is  not  of  God,  neither 
he  that  loveth  not  his  brother."  "  If  a  man 
say,  I  love  God,  and  hateth  his  brother,  he  is 
a  liar )  for  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother 
whom  he  hath  seen,  cannot  love  God  whom 
he  hath  not  seen."  St.  James  also  declares, 
"  If  any  man  thinketh  himself  to  be  religious, 
while  he  bridleth  not  his  tongue  but  deceiveth 
his  heart,  this  man's  religion  is  vain." 


OBEDIENCE  THE   TEST  OF   DISCIPLESHIP    213 

Once  more,  then,  Obedience  is  the  test  of 
religion.  Let  every  one  hear  and  mark  this 
fact.  There  can  be  no  true  child  of  the  king- 
dom, whether  in  the  church  or  out  of  it,  who  is 
not  a  worker  of  righteousness.  Conversely,  all 
workers  of  iniquity,  whether  in  the  church  or 
out  of  it,  are  children  of  the  devil.  Again,  if 
we  profess  love  or  friendship  for  Christ,  but 
keep  not  his  commandments,  our  profession  is 
vain  and  our  true  place  is  with  the  workers 
of  unrighteousness.  However  great  our  elo- 
quence, or  mighty  our  works,  or  profuse  our 
devotions,  we  belong  in  the  outer  darkness 
with  the  workers  of  iniquity,  and  sooner  or 
later  we  shall  go  to  our  proper  place. 

Historically  this  has  not  always  been  under- 
stood. In  the  non-Christian  systems  there  has 
been  little  connection  between  rehgion  and 
riditeousness,  and  often  their  divorce  has  been 
complete.  For  the  most  part  the  religion  con- 
sists of  a  set  of  rites  and  practices,  sometimes 
silly,  sometimes  wicked,  and  always  artificial ; 
and  their  due  performance  is  religion.  Water 
is  poured  on  a  stone,  meal  is  cast  into  the  fire. 


214  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

an  animal  is  slain,  pain  or  loss  of  various  kinds 
is  undergone.  But  in  all  this  there  is  com- 
monly little  or  nothing-  that  looks  or  tends  to 
righteousness.  Even  in  the  Old  Testament  the 
moralization  of  religion  was  very  slow  and  im- 
perfect. Some  of  the  prophets  saw  the  truth, 
but  the  worshipers  themselves  largely  lost 
themselves  in  ritual  and  mechanism,  and  made 
this  the  essence  of  religion.  Legal  and  ritual 
righteousness,  rather  than  personal  and  heart 
righteousness,  was  their  aim. 

The  thorough  moralizing  of  religion  is  first 
found  in  Christianity.  Here  everything  in  re- 
ligion is  made  to  depend  on  the  heart.  God 
must  be  worshiped  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  and 
only  such  worship  is  accepted.  Acceptance 
with  God  is  not  a  matter  of  temj^les  and  rites 
and  forms,  but  of  the  love  and  loyalty  of  the 
heart.  But  the  disciples  do  not  always  under- 
stand this.  The  world-old  tendency  to  sepa- 
rate religion  and  righteousness  and  reduce 
religion  to  rites  and  forms,  the  old  fancy  that 
an  evil  life  can  be  compounded  for  by  ritual 
exercises,  or  mechanical  devotion,  or  correct- 


OBEDIENCE   THE  TEST   OF   DISCIPLESHIP    215 

ness  of  belief,  still  manifest  themselves.  There 
are  sfreat  relisfious  bodies  in  which  the  ritual 
and  sacerdotal  and  mechanical  element  is  so 
prominent  as  to  obscure  the  moral  factor. 
The  attention  of  the  disciple  is  not  directed  to 
working  the  works  of  living  righteousness,  but 
to  observins:  the  mechanical  routine  the  church 
has  prescribed.  And  this  is  religion.  And 
God,  who  looketh  at  the  heart,  and  who  will 
not  hear  us  if  we  regard  iniquity  in  our  hearts, 
is  thought  to  be  well  pleased. 

The  same  divorce  of  piety  and  righteous- 
ness is  often  reached  in  other  religious  bodies 
by  setting  up  some  subjective  test  of  religion, 
commonly  an  emotional  test  or  experience  of 
some  sort  —  in  any  case  something  other  than 
the  supreme  test  of  obedience.  This  sometimes 
goes  so  far  as  practically  to  displace  our  Lord 
himself  as  the  object  of  faith  and  trust.  In- 
stead of  fixing  their  attention  on  Christ  and 
his  grace  and  the  Father  whom  he  has  revealed, 
men  often  fix  their  attention  on  their  own 
inward  states  and  judge  themselves  accord- 
ingly. Hence  we  often  find  inquirers  so  con- 


216  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

fused  that,  instead  of  seeking  to  serve  God  and 
keep  his  commandments,  they  are  seeking  to 
have  an  experience ;  the  mark  of  discipleship 
is  not  in  obedience  to  the  Master,  but  in  vari- 
ous states  of  f  eehng  which  are  supposed  to  be 
pecuharly  religious.  And  they  talk  of  these 
things  in  a  strained  and  artificial  way,  the  re- 
sult being  that  the  experience  they  talk  about 
is  not  one  they  really  have,  but  one  they  sup- 
pose they  ought  to  have ;  and  one  respecting 
which  they  have  an  uncomfortable  sense  of 
unreality  when  they  seriously  think  about  it. 
A  further  result  is  that  in  all  the  churches  it 
is  no  uncommon  thing  to  find  persons  whose 
piety  is  no  security  for  righteousness,  and  who 
seem  to  have  little  idea  of  any  connection  be- 
tween the  two.  They  may  abound  in  religious 
sentiment  and  emotion,  and  be  zealous  in  de- 
votional exercises,  but  somehow  or  other  all 
these  things  together  fail  to  issue  in  any 
sturdiness  and  integrity  of  character,  or  in 
any  active  love  and  practice  of  righteousness. 
And  much  reliofious  teaching^  tends  in  the 
same  direction,  from  failure  to  fix  attention 


OBEDIENCE   THE   TEST   OF   DISCIPLESHIP    217 

on  obedience  as  the  supreme  and  only  decisive 
test  of  discipleship. 

In  our  individualistic  Protestant  churches 
we  are  beyond  the  notion  that  relig-ious  mech- 
anism or  sacerdotal  proxyisra  can  recommend 
us  to  God ;  but  we  are  not  perfectly  free  from 
the  tendency  to  find  the  test  of  religion  in 
something  other  than  obedience.  I  wish  now 
to  consider  the  aberrations  thence  resulting. 

This  tendency  has  a  historical  root.  It 
sprang  partly  from  a  desire  to  make  religion 
a  personal  matter  in  distinction  from  religion 
by  proxy  and  attorney,  as  in  sacerdotalism. 
It  also  sprang  more  particularly  from  a  desire 
to  deny  all  salvation  by  works,  and  to  find 
marks  of  grace  whereby  the  disciple  should 
infallibly  be  marked  off  from  all  the  counter- 
feits of  "  mere  morality  "  and  "  natural  good- 
ness." But  in  the  progress  of  psychology, 
ethics,  and  theology,  we  have  reached  a  stage 
where  the  matter  needs  restatement  from  a 
modern  point  of  view. 

The  centre  of  the  religious  life  is  the  moral 
will.  The  thing  which  a   man  chooses  and 


218  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

aims  at  in  conduct  makes  him.  When  we  know 
the  bent  of  will  and  choice  we  can  infallibly 
locate  the  man  in  his  moral  relations.  The 
distino^uishin"^  mark  of  the  child  of  the  King:- 
dom  is  that  his  will  is  set  to  do  the  will  of 
God.  The  filial  surrender  to  God  to  do  his 
will  is  the  central  and  supreme  thing  in  true 
religion.  This  is  the  sum  of  God's  demands 
upon  us,  and  our  all-inclusive  duty.  There  is 
no  substitute  for  it;  nothing  else  can  take  its 
place.  "Lo,  I  come  to  do  thy  will,  0  God,  now 
and  f  orevermore,  in  this  world  or  in  any  other." 
This  is  the  one  and  only  sure  mark  of  grace 
and  discipleship.  Having  given  himself  to 
God  to  do  his  will,  the  disciple's  immediate 
duty  is  to  report  for  orders. 

Now  this  direction  of  the  will  is  preemi- 
nently revealed  in  conduct.  Owing  to  the 
unity  of  our  nature,  the  will  seldom  stands 
alone  without  emotional  attendants ;  but  these 
attendants  are  no  infallible  indications  of  the 
will's  bent.  Even  in  our  earthly  affections 
this  is  the  case.  Love  itself  does  not  reside 
essentially  in  ebullitions  of  the  sensibility,  but 


OBEDIENCE   THE   TEST   OF   DISCIPLESHIP    219 

in  the  fixed  purpose  to  please  and  to  serve. 
In  the  life  of  the  family  this  is  the  only  form 
in  which  it  manifests  itself  most  of  the  time ; 
and  when  this  purpose  is  not  present,  we  have 
no  proper  love,  but  only  passing  fancy  and 
attraction.  Every  person  of  any  experience 
knows  that  nothing  whatever  is  worthy  the 
name  of  love  which  has  not  taken  on  the  form 
of  a  fixed  purpose  to  please  and  to  serve.  The 
same  is  true  of  our  love  of  God.  Its  essential 
mark  is  the  fixed  purpose  to  please  and  to 
serve.  Where  this  is  given  we  have  the  essen- 
tial thing.  Where  it  is  not  given  we  have 
delusion  or  pretense.  "  If  ye  love  me,  ye  will 
keep  my  commandments."  "  This  is  the  love 
of  God,  that  we  keep  his  commandments." 
"  He  that  hath  my  commandments  and  keep- 
eth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  me."  "  If  a  man 
love  me,  he  will  keep  my  word."  Thus  the 
Master  himself  makes  obedience  the  one  test 
of  love. 

We  are  coming  to  understand  this  matter 
better  than  formerly.  Ethical  analysis  has  re- 
vealed the  moral  will  as  the  centre  of  charac- 


220  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

ter,  and  physiological  and  psychological  study 
has  shown  the  uncertain  character  of  emotion 
and  feeling  as  spiritual  tests.  Untrained  and 
unspiritual  thought  always  tends  to  seek  after 
a  sign.  In  the  outer  world  it  has  sought  God 
in  abnormal  wonders,  rather  than  in  the  stead- 
fast ordinances  of  nature.  In  the  inner  world 
it  has  looked  for  God  in  lawless  ebullitions 
and  visions  and  various  pathological  pheno- 
mena, rather  than  in  the  orderly  movement  of 
rational  thought,  the  deepening  of  moral  in- 
sight, the  quickening  of  the  moral  sensibili- 
ties, and  the  strengthening  of  the  moral  will. 
The  former  gratify  the  love  of  the  marvelous 
and  are  supposed  to  be  far  superior  to  any- 
thing revealed  in  reason  and  conscience.  But 
this,  too,  we  are  outgrowing.  We  are  learning 
that  God  is  as  certainly  present  in  the  orderly 
and  normal  movements  of  reason  and  the 
moral  nature  as  in  the  abnormal  and  extraor- 
dinary ;  and  perhaps  even  more  so.  We  have 
further  discovered  what  a  variable  and  com- 
plex thing  the  emotional  life  is.  Even  reli- 
gious emotion  is  seen  to  be  physically  con- 


OBEDIENCE  THE   TEST   OF   DISCIPLESHIP    221 

ditioned  and  to  strike  its  roots  deep  in  our 
physical  system.  As  to  its  form  and  manifes- 
tation, we  have  discovered  that  it  is  mainly  an 
outcome  of  temperament  rather  than  of  char- 
acter. Hence  we  no  longer  take  it  at  its  face 
value,  but  test  it  by  the  law  of  righteousness.- 
We  have  got  beyond  the  naive  notions  of  an 
earlier  generation,  according  to  which  each 
fluctuation  of  feeling  was  interpreted  as  a 
mark  of  divine  favor  or  disfavor,  without  any 
suspicion  of  the  laws  of  emotional  periodicity 
and  of  their  physical  and  temperamental  con- 
ditions. 

Of  course  I  would  not  be  understood  to 
deny  that  the  religious  life  has  its  emotional 
attendants.  But  it  is  clear  that  these  vary 
very  greatly  with  different  persons  and  that 
they  are  no  test  of  discipleship.  It  is  further 
clear  that  emotions  are  wholesome  only  when 
they  spring  from  ideas.  Religious  emotion  is 
rational  only  when  it  springs  from  the  con- 
templation of  religious  truth,  and  from  build- 
ing ourselves  up  on  our  most  holy  faith  of 
the  Gospel.  Whenever  it  is  sought  for  itself 


222  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

and  by  itself,  it  becomes  neurological  and 
pathological,  as  in  the  excesses  of  revival 
meetings  among  the  more  ignorant  of  the 
colored  people  in  the  South. 

Neither  would  I  be  understood  to  deny 
that  God  may  make  gracious  revelations  of 
himself  in  the  hidden  depths  of  the  spirit. 
He  may  cause  strange  peace  and  rest  and  joy 
to  spring  up  within  us.  This  is  to  be  coveted, 
and,  when  given,  thankfully  received.  But  we 
must  also  remember  that  he  has  made  a  more 
sure  revelation  in  the  Scriptures  and  the 
moral  nature;  and  any  individual  revelations 
which  conflict  therewith  are  to  be  decisively 
set  aside.  And  we  must  further  remember  that 
persons  unskilled  in  reflection  and  untrained 
in  thought  easily  mistake  their  own  notions 
for  revelations  from  above.  Every  generation, 
almost  every  community,  has  seen  shocking 
illustrations  of  the  ease  with  which  this  is 
done.  The  noblest  and  the  basest  feelings  lie 
strangely  near  each  other  in  our  complex  na- 
ture, and  the  basest  are  easily  mistaken  for 
the  noblest,  unless  we  are  careful  to  try  them 


0BJ:DIENCE  the  test  of  DISCIPLESHIP    223 

by  the  rule  of  obedience.  The  result  is  that 
•we  must  bring  all  revelations,  manifestations, 
emotions,  outpourings  to  the  one  sure  test  of 
risfhteousness.  Whatsoever  thino^  of  this  kind 
springs  from  the  contemplation  of  Christian 
truth,  and  leads  to  greater  faithfulness  and 
devotion  of  righteous  living,  is  of  God.  And 
nothing  else  is;  but  is  a  matter  of  nerves,  or 
social  contagion,  or  loosely  knit  intellect,  or 
moral  flabbiness,  or  all  combined.  By  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them. 

There  is  another  set  of  religious  feelings 
very  different  from  those  just  mentioned,  but 
which  equally  fail  to  attain  to  obedience  as 
the  central  thing.  These  are  the  feelings  which 
gather  around  the  aesthetic  and  contemplative 
side  of  religion.  For  any  fairly  developed  mind 
of  normal  character,  religion  must  be  a  pro- 
foundly interesting  subject  of  reflection.  It 
takes  hold  on  the  unseen  and  the  eternal.  It 
holds  a  philosophy  of  existence,  —  the  key  to 
the  puzzles  of  life,  the  solution  of  its  problems, 
the  harmony  of  its  discords,  the  justification 
of  all  finite  being.  We  are  thrown  back  upon 


224  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

it  when  we  contemplate  the  tragedy  of  human 
life ;  art  and  poetry  cry  out  for  it ;  a  sense  of 
dependence  and  incompleteness  forces  us  upon 
it.  Nameless  longings  and  voiceless  aspirations 
find  in  religion  their  expression.  Under  these 
and  similar  influences  the  human  mind  has 
developed  its  great  religious  forms.  The  spirit 
of  reverence  desires  that  all  things  should  be 
fittingly  done,  and  naturally  seeks  to  body 
forth  the  feelings  of  awe  and  aspiration  and 
worship  in  rite  and  ceremony  and  music  and 
symbol  and  architecture,  which  thus  become 
the  visible  speech  of  the  otherwise  dumb  souls 
of  men.  In  this  way  were  produced  the  great 
church  buildings,  the  religious  music,  the 
splendid  rituals  and  liturgies  and  the  whole 
system  of  religious  symbolism.  Much  of  this 
is  needed  for  the  full  expression  of  man's  reli- 
gious nature,  and  when  that  which  is  perfect 
is  come  we  shall  have  these  things  also  in 
perfection. 

But  these  things,  though  connected  with  re- 
ligion, are  not  religion  in  God's  sight.  They 
are   simply   the   aesthetic  and   contemplative 


OBEDIENCE  THE  TEST  OF  DISCIPLESHIP    225 

side  or  aspect  of  reli^on.  Persons  of  taste  and 
culture,  or  persons  of  contemplative  type,  are 
especially  affected  by  this  aspect,  and  easily 
mistake  these  things,  or  delight  in  these 
thing's,  for  religfion.  But  the  feelinofs  which 
arise  from  a  well-ordered  religious  service,  or 
from  soaring  architecture,  or  from  the  har- 
monious blending  of  dim  religious  lights  or 

"  When  through  the  long-drawn  aisle  and  fretted  vault 
The  pealing  anthem  swells  the  note  of  praise  "  :  — 

these  may  be  only  aesthetic  emotions  with  no 
trace  of  heart  love  and  devotion.  Likewise,  the 
sad  delight,  the  pensive  tenderness,  the  speech- 
less longing  developed  in  poetic  and  inactive 
contemplation  of  life  and  its  vicissitudes  and 
mysteries,  may  have  nothing  of  religion  in 
them.  They  may  even  be  compatible  with  spe- 
cial inhumanity,  just  as  the  grief  over  the  woes 
of  a  character  of  fiction  is  no  security  for  ten- 
derness of  heart.  Where  any  of  these  things 
are  cut  loose  from  righteousness,  or  are  viewed 
as  ends  in  themselves,  they  become  an  abomi- 
nation to  the  Lord  and  to  every  enlightened 


226  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

conscience.  Balaam  is  a  good  example  of  a 
man  of  taste,  with  fine  moral  sense,  rare  poetic 
feeling  and  gift  of  expression,  but  along  with 
it  all  and  ruining  all,  he  loved  the  wages  of 
unrighteousness.  Often  we  find  persons  who 
as  a  matter  of  temperament  and  constitution 
have  a  devotional,  meditative,  contemplative 
gift.  They  abound  in  the  East.  The  Catholic 
church  furnishes  more  examples  than  the  Pro- 
testant church,  but  specimens  are  everywhere 
to  be  found.  They  have  a  natural  talent  for 
religion.  This,  too,  is  to  be  desired  as  pre- 
paration for  religion.  It  secures  a  religious 
naturalness  and  ease  and  propriety  which  can 
hardly  be  otherwise  attained.  But  this,  too, 
is  not  religion  at  all,  until  it  is  brought  into 
connection  with  righteousness  and  the  funda- 
mental aim  to  do  the  will  of  God.  So  far  as 
it  falls  short  of  this,  it  is  purely  a  matter  of 
temperament  and  may  be  utterly  selfish  and 
irreligious  in  the  sight  of  God. 

Thus  against  all  who  would  compound  with 
duty  for  something  less  than  obedience,  or  who 
would  put  something  else  in  its  place,  I  hold 


OBEDIENCE  THE  TEST  OF  DISCIPLESHIP    227 

up  the  simplicity  and  inexorable  rigor  of  our 
Master's  requirement  for  discipleship.  Now  I 
wish  to  hold  up  the  same  simplicity  as  a  source 
of  comfort  and  relief  to  another  class  of  per- 
sons. 

There  are  many  thoughtful  persons  in  most 
churches  who  have  been  confused  by  the  fancy 
that  some  kind  of  peculiar  subjective  experi- 
ence is  necessary  in  order  to  be  religious,  and 
they  have  sought  to  have  the  experience  and 
have  never  had  anything  which  seemed  to 
them  to  come  up  to  the  language  tliey  hear 
about  it.  Righteousness  they  can  understand. 
Keeping  the  commandments  of  God  is  also  a 
clear  idea.  But  they  suppose  there  is  some- 
thing beyond  this  which  must  be  experienced 
before  one  may  count  himself  a  disciple  of 
Christ.  And  because  they  have  never  experi- 
enced anything  of  the  kind  they  are  often  con- 
fused and  disturbed,  even  fearing  sometimes 
that  they  have  neither  part  nor  lot  in  the  mat- 
ter. Now  to  all  such,  obedience  is  the  only 
test  of  discipleship  and  love.  We  are  not  re- 
quired to  have  experiences,  or  revelations,  or 


228  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

outpourings  of  any  kind.  We  are  required 
simply  to  surrender  ourselves  to  God,  trusting 
in  his  mercy  and  keeping  his  commandments. 
Love,  faith,  trust,  discipleship  —  all  are  ex- 
pressed, revealed,  and  tested  in  and  by  obedi- 
ence. We  are  not,  then,  to  undertake  any 
examination  of  our  feelings,  the  depth  of  our 
repentance,  the  intensity  of  our  desires,  the 
warmth  of  our  emotions ;  we  are  simply  to 
begin  at  once  the  life  of  righteousness,  look- 
ing unto  our  Master  for  all  needed  help  and 
grace.  The  set  purpose  to  serve  and  please 
him  by  keeping  his  commandments  is  the  only 
true  mark  of  the  disciple. 

And  after  we  have  fixed  this  thought  in  our 
minds  and  have  seen  that  the  moral  will  to 
please  God  by  lives  of  righteousness  is  the 
central  thing,  we  next  need  to  see  that  the 
religious  life  will  manifest  itself  differently  in 
different  persons.  The  error  I  have  been  deal- 
ing with  has  led  to  a  very  general  fancy  that 
there  is  some  one  type  of  religious  experience 
to  which  all  should  conform;  and  the  attempt 
has  been  made  to  cut  all  experience  according 


OBEDIENCE  THE  TEST  OF  DISCIPLESHIP    229 

to  a  common  pattern.  The  language  and  ex- 
perience of  maturity  have  been  required  of 
childhood ;  and  persons  of  wholesome  train- 
ing and  good  moral  habits  have  been  expected 
to  undergo  the  same  struggles  as  the  outbreak- 
insT  sinner  who  reforms.  But  this  is  the  result 
of  gross  ignorance,  both  pedagogical  and  re- 
ligious. There  are  different  types  of  religious 
experience  with  different  persons,  and  there 
are  different  stages  of  religious  experience 
with  the  same  person ;  and  this  fact  has  to  be 
regarded  by  all  religious  guides  and  teachers 
who  aim  to  lead  and  not  mislead. 

These  different  types  are  found  in  all  Chris- 
tian bodies  which  have  lived  long  enough 
to  have  all  types  of  humanity  within  them. 
There  is  first  the  purely  ethical  type.  Religion 
is  riofhteousness ;  it  is  the  moral  law  conceived 
as  the  will  of  God.  This  is  the  simplest  and 
surest  type.  It  is  level  to  every  intellect  and  to 
every  conscience.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  fervors, 
nor  of  deep  meditations,  nor  of  flaming  rap- 
tures, but  of  loyalty  to  righteousness  and  to 
God,  who  is  the  fountain  and  author  of  right- 


230  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

eousness.  This  is  the  religion  of  the  Synoptic 
Gospels  and  of  St.  James's  Epistle.  It  is  also 
the  religion  of  most  thoughtful  young  peo- 
ple of  wholesome  moral  training  and  habits. 
Through  obedience  to  conscience  and  the  God 
of  conscience  they  find  peace. 

But  there  are  other  persons  to  whom  this 
phase  of  Christian  doctrine  is  inadequate.  It 
is  not  that  they  are  less  moral  than  the  others, 
they  are  often  more  so ;  but  they  cannot  find 
peace  through  obedience  alone.  The  law  is 
more  than  a  rule  which  might  be  kept ;  it  is  a 
spirit  which  can  never  be  exhausted.  Hence 
they  can  never  rest  in  the  contemplation  of 
their  own  performances.  They  must  be  taken 
out  of  themselves  and  learn  that  we  are  saved 
by  grace  through  faith ;  and  only  thus  can 
they  find  peace.  This  is  religion  of  the  Pauline 
type.  It  is  not  immoral;  it  does  not  aim  to 
escape  duty ;  but  it  is  another  type  of  thought 
than  that  of  St.  James's  Epistle. 

Again,  with  many  there  is  a  still  deeper 
need  than  either  of  these  types  recognizes. 
This  is  the  need  for  oneness  and  fellowship 


OBEDIENCE  THE  TEST  OF  DISCIPLESHIP    231 

with  God  now  and  here.  This  type  especially 
appears  in  the  writings  of  St.  John,  where  we 
find  a  deal  of  mystical  matter  about  the  vine 
and  branches,  the  indwelling  of  God  ;  and  life 
eternal  is  identified  with  the  knowledge  of 
God. 

These  three  types  appear  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  in  the  history  of  the  church.  They 
are  implicit  in  the  religious  nature  itself ;  and 
if  men  were  perfect  they  would  all  find  ex- 
pression in  every  Christian.  But  as  men  are 
rarely  all-sided  enough  to  represent  normal 
humanity,  we  find  religious  bodies  and  indi- 
viduals tending  to  some  one  type  rather  than 
including  them  all.  But  all  of  these  types  have 
to  be  tested  by  righteousness.  Otherwise  sal- 
vation by  faith  may  easily  pass  into  immoral- 
ity, and  mystic  contemplation  and  fervor  may 
issue  in  practical  indifference  to  the  work  of 
the  world  and  in  dissolving  moral  distinctions 
themselves  away  in  an  emotional  haze. 

Now  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  escape 
these  dangers  and  provide  for  all  types  is  by 
beginning  with  the  moral  type  and  allowing 


232  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

free  development  without  prescribing  any  ex- 
perience or  pattern  of  any  kind.  But  the  kee23- 
ing  the  commandments  of  God  must  always 
be  fundamental ;  the  essential  root  of  the 
whole  matter.  There  is  no  other  requirement, 
and  no  other  may  be  imposed.  This  is  partic- 
ularly to  be  observed  in  the  case  of  the  young. 
We  must  impose  on  them  no  demands  for 
deep  experiences,  or  striking  sentiments,  or 
doctrinal  insight,  or  emotional  fervors  of  any 
sort,  but  simply  obedience  in  their  measure  to 
the  will  of  God.  The  apprehension  of  the  full 
system  of  Christian  truth  is  not  given  to  any 
one  at  once,  but  must  be  slowly  learned  in  life 
itself ;  and  we  can  make  no  greater  error  than 
to  demand  from  children  the  thought  and 
feeling  of  mature  life.  At  best  they  can  only 
repeat  the  language  without  entering  into  its 
meaning.  The  meaning  itself  is  revealed  only 
to  religious  maturity.  The  weakness  and  sin- 
fulness of  human  nature  are  discerned  only  in 
a  knowledge  of  life  and  the  sterner  conflicts 
of  faith.  The  blessedness  of  salvation  by  grace 
through  faith  is  felt  only  after  the  moral  ideal 


OBEDIENCE   THE   TEST  OF   DISCIPLESHIP    233 

has  revealed  the  imperfection  of  our  best  ef- 
forts. The  attraction  of  the  heavenly  life  can 
be  strongly  felt  only  after  the  vicissitudes  of 
our  earthly  existence  have  shattered  the  hopes 
of  this.  It  is  not  edifying  to  hear  children 
talking  fluently  or  otherwise  about  these  mat- 
ters;  for  they  have  not  had  the  experience 
necessary  to  give  understanding. 

Christianity  has  a  religion  for  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men,  for  all  ages  and  tempera- 
ments. There  is  a  bright  and  cheerful  religion 
for  childhood  and  youth,  and  a  more  sombre 
and  deeper-toned  religion  for  later  years.  It 
has  matin  bells  for  life's  morning  and  vesper 
songs  for  the  night.  Work  and  prayer,  con- 
templation, obedience,  aspiration,  communion, 
all  mix  and  mingle  in  the  complex  experience 
of  the  Christian  community ;  but  the  one  thing 
common  to  all,  the  one  thing  with  which  all 
may  begin  and  which  none  may  ever  outgrow, 
is  obedient  loyalty  to  the  spirit  and  commands 
of  our  Lord.  Beyond  this  there  is  no  common 
pattern  of  religious  experience,  and  it  is  not 
desirable  that  there  should  be.  The  inner  life 


234  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

will  show  all  the  variations  of  age  and  temper- 
ament and  training  and  personal  experience 
which  are  natural  to  our  human  lot.  God 
makes  persons  alike  in  the  religious  life  as 
little  as  he  makes  them  alike  in  mind  or  body 
or  circumstances. 

To  sum  up  the  matter.  If  our  hearts  con- 
demn us  in  this  matter  of  obedience,  God  is 
greater  than  our  hearts  and  knoweth  all 
things.  But  if  our  hearts  condemn  us  not,  let 
us  have  confidence  toward  God,  because  we 
keep  his  commandments  and  do  the  things 
that  are  pleasing  in  his  sight. 


X 

OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  GOD 


X 

OUR    PARTNERSHIP    WITH    GOD 

Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,  for  it  ia 
God  who  worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  work  for  his  good 
pleasure.  —  Phil.  2  :  12, 13. 

Many  texts  are  so  great,  so  many  sided,  that 
they  can  hardly  be  expressed  except  in  contra- 
dictory forms  of  speech.  The  statement  of  the 
truth  from  one  point  of  view  seems  to  conflict 
with  the  statement  of  the  same  truth  from 
another  point  of  view.  This  seeming  contra- 
diction runs  through  the  entire  language  of 
life,  and  we  have  a  striking  illustration  in 
our  text.  We  are  commanded  to  work  out 
our  own  salvation,  and  in  the  next  clause  we 
are  told  that  it  is  God  who  worketh  in  us 
to  will  and  to  work.  We  are  to  work  be- 
cause it  is  God  who  works  in  us.  We  cannot 
work  apart  trom  God,  and  God  also  works 
only  in  connection  with  our  working. 

There   is   no  difficulty  in    such    forms  of 


238  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

speech  except  for  those  persons  who  deal  in 
words  only,  and  who  are  ignorant  of  the  way 
in  which  langfuasfe  is  used  in  real  life  and  who 
are  given  over  to  verbal  quibble  and  cavil. 
The  text  is  simply  a  specification  in  the  spirit- 
ual life  of  that  o^eneral  division  of  life  between 
God  and  man  which  runs  through  the  whole 
human  realm.  It  announces  nothing  new  or 
strange  and  nothing  which  is  peculiar  to  re- 
ligion or  theology,  but  rather  a  familiar  prin- 
ciple which  underlies  all  our  experience. 
Human  life  everywhere  presents  this  double 
aspect  of  man's  dependence  on  his  own  efforts 
and  of  his  dependence  on  God,  and  it  would 
be  impossible  to  express  the  full  truth  without 
bringing  both  facts  into  view.  In  practice  we 
emphasize  one  or  the  other  according  to  the 
needs  of  the  case. 

We  may  illustrate  this  double  aspect  of  our 
life  by  the  case  of  the  farmer.  He  depends 
for  a  crop  at  once  on  his  own  efforts  and  on 
the  laws  and  processes  of  Nature  which  at 
bottom  root  in  the  will  and  purpose  of  God. 
Of  himself  he  can  raise  no  blade  of  grass  or 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  GOD  239 

grain  of  corn,  and  yet  there  will  never  be  a 
harvest  unless  he  plows  and  sows  and  carefully 
tends  the  growing  crop.  And  if  there  were  a 
farmer  who  from  his  faith  in  Providence,  or 
from  a  persuasion  that  of  himself  he  could  do 
nothing,  should  neglect  to  plow  and  to  sow, 
we  know  that  Providence  would  leave  him  to 
destitution  and  starvation.  We  should  say  to 
such  a  one,  You  should  not  depend  on  Provi- 
dence, you  must  depend  on  yourself.  You 
must  work  out  your  own  salvation  or  you  will 
come  to  poverty,  to  rags,  and  to  starvation. 

But  on  the  other  hand  there  might  be  a 
farmer  who  in  shallow  thouoht  and  self-con- 

o 

ceit  should  say,  I  do  not  pray  for  my  daily 
bread,  I  work  for  it  and  get  it  for  myself.  I 
raised  these  crops  and  I  have  no  need  of  any- 
thing beyond  myself.  We  should  remind  such 
a  one  that  of  himself  he  could  do  nothinof. 
Of  course  he  must  work,  and  yet  after  all  it 
is  God  who  works  in  Nature,  to  will  and  to 
work  of  his  own  good  pleasure,  for  it  is  God 
who  maintains  the  steadfast  ordinances  of  the 
world,  and  all  these  influences  of  earth  and 


240  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

air  and  sky  out  of  which  the  harvest  comes 
run  back  to  the  divine  thought  and  will. 
And  so  finally  the  springing  grass  and  the 
ripening  corn  are  God's  work,  and  thus  it  is 
that  God  giveth  us  our  daily  bread. 

This  serves  to  illustrate  the  double  aspect 
of  human  life,  our  dependence  on  ourselves 
and  our  dependence  on  God.  The  full  truth 
is  expressed  only  when  we  recognize  both 
elements.  What  sorry  work  we  should  make 
of  it  if  we  had  two  schools  of  agriculture,  one 
insisting^  on  man's  freedom  and  igcnoring;  his 
dependence,  the  other  insisting  on  his  de- 
pendence and  ignoring  his  freedom  and  the 
part  it  has  to  play.  These  two  schools  of 
agriculture  would  be  the  analogue  of  the  two 
tendencies  in  historic  theology,  one  emphasiz- 
ing the  human  side  and  the  other  emphasizing 
the  divine  side,  and  both  failing  duly  to 
recoofnize  the  fact  that  without  both  sides  the 
true  order  of  life  cannot  be  expressed. 

The  deepest  thought  of  God  is  not  that  of 
ruler,  but  of  Father ;  and  the  deepest  thought 
of  men  is  not  that  of  subjects,  but  of  children. 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  GOD  241 

The  deepest  thought  concerning  God's  pur- 
pose in  our  life  is  not  salvation,  but  the  trani- 
ing  and  development  of  souls  as  the  children 
of  God.  Salvation  or  redemption  is  but  an  in- 
cident or  implication  of  this  deeper  purpose, 
and  must  be  interpreted  accordingly.  And  in 
this  general  order  of  training  God  has  pro- 
vided for  man  a  vast  realm  of  possibility 
both  in  man  himself  and  in  the  world  about 
him.  But  the  realization  of  those  possibilities 
in  life  belongs  to  man.  The  physical  world  is 
stored  with  possibilities  of  beauty  and  pro- 
ductiveness, but  it  is  left  to  man  to  bring  them 
out  into  realization.  The  animal  world  admits 
of  indefinite  improvement  under  human  di- 
rection. As  St.  Paul  has  said,  the  whole  crea- 
tion groans  and  travails  in  pain,  waiting  for 
the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God,  as  if  all 
these  hidden  possibilities  repressed  and  held 
back  by  man's  failure  were  in  secret  pain  and 
lonffinff  for  the  time  when  men  should  mani- 
fest  themselves  as  the  sons  of  God,  and  thus 
help  all  the  hidden  beauty  and  life  and  won- 
der to  realization.  And  so  in  every  department 


242  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

of  human  life,  in  society,  in  the  family,  in  art 
and  science  and  literature,  there  are  manifold 
possibilities,  but  all  waiting  for  the  same 
manifestations  of  the  sons  of  God.  Preemi- 
nently is  this  the  case  in  the  spiritual  life  it- 
self. God  waits  to  bestow  himself  upon  us,  to 
lift  us  up  to  spiritual  development,  but  it  can- 
not be  done  because  of  the  lack  of  our  co- 
operating will. 

Throughout  this  unfolding  and  training, 
God  will  do  nothing  for  us  which  we  ought 
to  do  for  ourselves.  To  this  reserve  God  is 
pledged  by  wisdom  and  goodness.  It  is  not 
his  purpose  to  make  us  passively  happy,  but 
actively  good.  He  gives  us  nothing  ready 
made,  not  even  ourselves.  We  must  develop 
ourselves  into  power  and  efficiency.  We  must 
develop  and  train  our  faculties.  We  must 
mould  our  character  and  thus  our  future.  We 
must  put  our  own  image  and  superscription 
upon  life  as  the  condition  of  all  progress  worth 
having  and  of  all  life  worth  living.  The  goods 
of  the  passive  nature  soon  cloy.  We  find  true 
and  abiding  satisfaction  only  in  that  which 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  GOD  243 

Tve  ourselves  produce.  It  would  be  mere  pau- 
perism of  soul  could  we  live  in  the  passive 
voice.  The  living  energies  of  the  will  would 
slumber,  and  our  life  would  be  morally  on  a 
level  with  that  of  the  cattle.  But  we  are  not 
God's  paupers ;  we  are  God's  children,  and  he 
summons  us  to  be  workers  together  with  him 
in  the  divine  labor  of  realizing  his  will  and 
building  up  his  kingdom,  whether  in  ourselves 
or  in  the  world. 

This  passive  conception  of  spiritual  blessed- 
ness, which  is  prominent  in  popular  religious 
thought,  is  little  more  than  a  reflex  of  human 
laziness.  It  is  further  confirmed  by  the  tra- 
ditional conception  of  salvation  as  a  transac- 
tion of  lesral  and  forensic  character,  which  is 
completed  once  for  all  and  which  is  done  for 
us.  Whether  we  are  saved  or  not  then  depends 
on  this  judicial  transaction.  If  it  has  taken 
place,  justice  has  no  longer  any  claim  on  us 
and  we  are  saved  ;  otherwise  we  are  under  the 
curse  of  the  law,  and  the  wrath  of  God  abideth 
on  us.  But  Christian  thought  has  pretty  much 
discounted  this  notion.  Salvation  is  seen  to  be 


244  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

not  a  finished  fact,  but  a  continual  and  vital 
process.  In  the  book  of  Acts  we  are  told  that 
the  Lord  added  to  the  church  such  as  were 
becoming  saved.  In  one  sense  every  one  is 
saved  whose  heart  says  Amen  to  the  will  of 
God.  This  is  the  dividing-line  between  the 
children  of  this  world  and  the  children  of  the 
Kingdom ;  but  in  another  and  deeper  sense 
no  one  is  saved  as  a  completed  work  —  we  are 
becoming  saved ;  that  is,  the  will  of  God  is 
becoming  progressively  wrought  out  in  us  and 
we  are  being  transformed  into  his  image, 
brought  into  deeper  sympathy  with  himself 
and  going  on  with  him  in  growing  fellow- 
ship and  deepening  life.  This  is  the  sense  in 
which  salvation  is  taken  in  our  text.  It  is  not 
enouo-h  that  we  cease  from  rebellion.  We 
must  come  into  positive  co-working  with  God, 
that  he  may  realize  in  us  and  through  us  his 
gracious  purpose,  and  lift  us  to  heights  of 
knowledge,  of  power,  and  of  love.  In  this 
sense  we  are  to  work  out  our  own  salvation 
and  never  to  rest,  but  ever  to  go  on  under  the 
inspiration  and  help  of  God  who  worketh  in 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  GOD  245 

US.  As  the  intellectual  life  forever  grows,  so 
the  spiritual  life  must  forever  grow;  the  limit 
in  both  cases  is  the  fullness  of  God.  We  must 
then  give  up  the  notion  of  salvation  as  some- 
thing in  which  we  are  passive,  or  as  something 
which  may  be  completed  once  for  all,  and 
rather  discern  in  it  the  progressive  realization 
of  the  will  of  God  in  us,  in  which  moreover 
we  are  actively  to  share. 

This  general  fact  that  we  must  depend  both 
on  God  and  on  ourselves  is  well  worth  con- 
sidering:, both  for  counsel  and  for  exhortation. 
As  Christians  we  often  overlook  this  division 
of  labor  and  expect  God  to  do  many  things 
for  us  which  we  ought  to  do  for  ourselves. 
This  is  one  great  reason  for  our  slow  progress. 
Both  in  the  inner  life  of  the  spirit  and  in  the 
outer  world  of  society  and  politics  and  inter- 
national relations  we  are  prone  to  fall  back 
upon  God,  when  we  should  fall  back  upon 
ourselves.  If  society  gets  into  a  bad  way  we 
wonder  why  God  does  not  come  to  the  rescue, 
and  often  some  good  people  think  that  the 
end  of  the  world  m.ust  be  at  hand,  or  that 


246  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

there  must  be  a  speedy  return  of  Christ  to  set 
thing's  rig-ht.  Or  if  throuo-h  ionorance  or  dis- 
regard  of  economic  and  industrial  and  sanitary 
laws  a  famine  or  pestilence  stalks  abroad,  we 
are  horror-struck  and  call  loudly  upon  Heaven 
for  help.  Or  if  through  cowardice  and  selfish- 
ness and  greed,  social  and  international  rela- 
tions get  tangled  and  earthquakes  begin  to  rum- 
ble under  the  foundations  of  society,  we  marvel 
at  the  divine  indifference.  But  this  indiffer- 
ence is  both  what  we  deserve  and  what  we  need 
for  our  discipline.  We  must  work  out  our  own 
salvation.  There  is  a  promised  land,  but  God 
is  in  no  hurry  to  have  it  occupied  except  by 
people  of  the  right  sort.  He  allowed  the  weak- 
hearted  cowards  who  came  out  of  Egypt  to 
wander  around  in  the  wilderness  until  they 
died  off,  and  another  generation  of  more  grit 
had  been  raised  up.  Everything  is  free,  but  it 
is  sold  at  a  price.  God  gives  everything,  but 
he  does  not  cast  pearls  before  swine. 

Often  we  ask  God  to  pity  the  poor,  send 
the  gospel  to  the  heathen,  etc.,  when  the  one 
and  only  thing  needed  is  our  own  pity  and 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  GOD  247 

our  own  work.  We  offer  prayers  which  we 
ought  to  answer  ourselves,  or  prayers  which 
are  shown  to  be  utterly  perfunctory  by  the 
fact  that  if  we  meant  them  Ave  should  be  up 
and  doing:.  We  have  no  rio^ht  to  ask  God  for 
anything  concerning  which  we  are  not  utterly 
in  earnest  and  concerning  which  we  are  not 
seeking  to  do  with  our  mioht  whatever  mav  lie 
in  our  power.  Such  asking  and  only  such  ask- 
ing is  prayer.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the 
strange  parable  of  the  unwilling  householder 
who  would  not  rise  and  give  bread  to  his  friend 
because  he  was  his  friend,  but  yielded  to  his 
importunities.  Heaven  hears  then,  and  only 
then,  when  man  is  so  much  in  earnest  that  he 
both  asks  and  knocks,  and  not  only  in  words, 
but  in  deeds  as  well. 

Anain,  we  overlook  this  fact  of  a  division 
of  labor  in  a  great  deal  of  our  criticism  of  the 
order  of  the  world.  There  are  many  persons 
■who  spend  much  time  in  criticising  the  uni- 
verse. It  is  a  hard  world,  a  bad  world,  and 
often  we  ask  ourselves,  If  God  be  good,  how 
can  these  thinos  be ?  But  here  also  our  won- 


248  THE  ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

der  is  misplaced.  God's  world  is  good,  but  its 
goodness  so  far  as  man  is  concerned  consists 
in  the  possibility  of  its  being  made  a  great 
deal  better.  Its  capacity  for  indefinite  im- 
provement in  response  to  the  aspiration,  the 
strenuous  will,  the  determined  and  continuous 
effort  of  manly  men,  that  is  the  goodness  of 
the  world.  It  is  a  hard  world  for  ignorance, 
for  selfishness,  for  laziness,  for  animalism,  for 
shiftlessness,  but  if  men  were  generally  mani- 
fested as  the  sons  of  God  there  would  be  a 
new  earth.  Only  think  of  the  changes  that 
would  take  place  in  life  if  men  began  at  once 
to  love  God  with  all  their  hearts  and  their 
neisrhbors  as  themselves.  Selfishness  would 
vanish.  Envy  and  heartburnings  would  cease. 
Ignorance  would  soon  disappear.  Disease 
would  also  pass  away.  The  wealth  wasted  on 
folly  or  destroyed  in  crime  could  be  used  for 
improving  human  conditions.  Under  those  cir- 
cumstances the  earth  would  soon  become  a 
garden  of  the  Lord.  The  world  is  good  or  bad 
as  we  make  it,  and  it  is  generally  as  good  as 
men  deserve. 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH   GOD  249 

Again,  this  division  of  labor  appears  also  in 
the  inner  life  of  the  spirit.  In  the  formal  re- 
lio-ious  life  itself,  without  doubt,  salvation  is 
of  grace,  but  equally  without  doubt  that  is  a 
mistaken  conception  of  salvation  which  does 
not  involve  our  most  strenuous  and  most  de- 
voted effort  in  spiritual  things.  Salvation,  as  I 
have  said,  must  be  interpreted  in  accordance 
•with  God's  deepest  purpose  in  human  hfe,  the 
training  and  development  of  souls  as  the  chil- 
dren of  God.  Any  other  conception  becomes 
simply  a  premium  on  indolence  and  a  damage 
to  character.  Hence  within  the  spiritual  life 
man  must  gird  himself  for  watchfulness,  for 
thoughtfulness,  and  must  summon  the  living 
energies  of  the  will  if  he  would  overcome  the 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  and  rise  into 
the  life  of  the  spirit. 

And  this  is  well.  It  is  not  pleasing  to  our 
indolence  or  love  of  ease,  but  in  our  higher 
moments  we  see  that  it  could  not  be  other- 
wise. Religious  history  abounds  in  attempts  to 
evade  the  need  of  working  out  our  own  salva- 
tion. There  have  been  schemes  of  mechanical 


250  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

salvation  by  magical  rites   or  external   cere- 
monies. Proxy  salvations  have  also  abounded, 
and  a  great  variety  of  moral  hocus-pocuses 
have  claimed  to  secure  salvation.  But  sooner  or 
later  we  see  that  they  will  not  do.  No  amount 
of  passive  pleasure  which  might  be  mechan- 
ically administered  would  long  satisfy  the  liv- 
ino-  spirit.  Even  to  be  plucked  up  and  planted 
in  heaven  would  give  no  abiding  satisfaction. 
To  have  the  filial  spirit  is  the  central  thing, 
and  then  by  practice  in  loyalty  and  work  and 
self-sacrifice  and  helpfulness  to  enter  into  fel- 
lowship  with  God,  into    sympathy  with   his 
thought  for  men,  to  work  together  with  him 
in  bringing  in  the  kingdom  of  righteousness 
and  love,  and  thus  to  grow  into  his  likeness 
and  into  him  forever.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
meriting  salvation  by  our  good  works ;  that 
is  an  obsolete  notion.   Our  good  works  held 
up  against  the  still  white  splendor  of  God's 
holiness  would  show  even  more  pitiable  than 
our  knowledge  if  held  up  against  the  back- 
ground of  God's  omniscience.  The  filial  spirit 
working  itself  out  in  loving  submission  and 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  GOD  251 

active  obedience,  this  only  is  salvation.  God 
above  looking  down  in  condescending  grace 
and  loving  invitation,  and  man  below  looking 
up  in  filial  surrender  and  aspiration,  and  then 
the  soul's  Godward  flight  forever  and  ever  — 
there  is  no  other  salvation. 

Now  we  must  familiarize  our  thought  with 
these  things  and  ponder  them  in  our  hearts. 
We  must  remember  that  there  is  an  order  of 
law  which  is  never  relaxed,  and  that  God  be- 
stows his  gifts  only  upon  conditions,  and  since 
those  conditions  are  expressions  of  his  love 
and  wisdom,  they  can  never  be  abolished  or 
foregone.  There  is  an  unseemly  relaxation  in 
Christian  thought  to-day  on  this  subject, 
partly,  I  suppose,  as  a  reaction  against  the 
harsh  and  often  immoral  utterances  of  an 
earlier  time.  God  was  then  conceived  as  a 
governor,  whose  chief  function  seemed  to  be 
to  inflict  penalties,  and  these  penalties  were 
conceived  in  a  crude  fashion  which  revolted 
our  sense  of  justice.  As  a  reaction  we  have 
fallen  into  a  moral  flabbiness  which  is  equally 
far  from  the  truth.  There  is  a  very  general 


252  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

fancy  that  we  can  drift  into  blessedness ;  that 
if  obedience  is  too  hard  for  us  it  is  no  great 
matter,  as  everything  will  come  out  all  right 
in  the  end;  that  if  the  gate  be  strait  and 
the  way  narrow  we  may  take  some  pleasanter 
road  and  reach  the  same  goal.  It  might  in- 
deed look  better  if  we  kept  the  command- 
ments ;  but  after  all  God  will  not  be  too 
strenuous,  and  if  we  insist  upon  it  he  will 
surely  give  in  to  our  desires  for  fun  and 
sport.  All  of  this  will  happen  then,  and  only 
then,  when  we  can  reap  a  harvest  of  wheat 
from  the  sowing  of  weeds ;  meanwhile,  and 
we  cannot  too  much  consider  it,  the  law  holds, 
whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  and  only  that 
shall  he  reap. 

Again,  misled  by  a  false  notion  of  the  di- 
vine working,  we  look  for  some  spiritual 
manifestation  outside  of  us  instead  of  through 
us,  which  shall  take  the  labor  off  our  hands 
and  gratify  our  desire  for  ease  and  for  the 
marvelous.  This  is  that  false  conception  of 
the  supernatural  which  seeks  after  signs  and 
wonders,  and  which  is  not  properly  religious 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH   GOD  253 

at  all.  It  is  not  interested  in  righteousness, 
but  in  show  and  sensation  and  excitement.  In 
all  of  this  we  are  mistaken,  and  unless  we 
change  our  minds  we  shall  be  miserably  dis- 
appointed. We  must  then  deepen  our  sense 
of  responsibility  and  learn  that  Heaven  helps 
only  those  who  help  themselves. 

Thus  far  in  emphasis  of  our  own  obligation 
and  responsibility  God  does  not  heed  us ;  he 
can  wait.  In  the  great  field  where  he  has 
taken  us  into  partnership,  what  he  does  will 
depend  on  what  we  do.  He  will  do  nothing  in 
this  field  without  our  cooperation.  If  we  de- 
sire weeds  and  poverty  and  rags  and  disease 
and  iofnorance  and  social  disorder,  we  can 
have  them ;  and  we  shall  have  them  unless 
we  resolutely  gird  ourselves  to  struggle  against 
them  and  to  labor  for  the  highest  things. 
This  is  the  condition  of  any  real  spiritual 
development  on  our  part,  and  to  this  condi- 
tion we  are  rigorously  held.  We  should  not 
then  go  far  astray  if  we  decided  that  every- 
thing depends  on  ourselves,  and  that  we  must 
work  and  pray  as  if  God  had  nothing  to  do 


254  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

with  the  matter.  Only  thus  can  we  truly  discern 
the  siofnificance  of  our  work  and  faithful- 
ness,  and  only  thus  can  we  come  to  appreciate 
the  abundant  life  to  which  we  are  called. 
But  when  we  have  said  this,  we  must  next 
emphasize  the  other  clause  of  our  text,  that  it 
is  God  who  worketh  in  us.  We  need  to  dwell 
on  this  also  to  save  ourselves  from  discourage- 
ment and  despondency,  and  to  get  the  right 
view  of  life  in  general.  Human  life  when 
measured  by  the  seen  is  poor  and  pitiable. 
Human  life  when  considered  in  abstraction 
from  some  underlying  divine  power  and  pur- 
pose does  seem  futile  and  resultless.  The 
irony  of  life  is  so  evident.  How  dieth  the 
wise  man  ?  as  the  fool.  And  what  profit  hath 
he  of  all  his  labor  under  the  sun  ?  Vanity  of 
vanities,  all  is  vanity.  Feelings  of  this  sort 
come  to  us  all  at  times.  And  for  them  there  is 
but  one  remedy  ;  we  must  fall  back  on  the 
thought  of  God.  He  is  the  great  and  ever- 
lasting worker.  He  has  ever  our  good  at 
heart.  He  desires  for  us  all  the  best  things. 
The  soul  that  hungers  and  thirsts  after  right- 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP  WITH   GOD  255 

eousness  shall  be  filled,  the  pure  in  heart  shall 
see  God,  the  meek  shall  be  guided  in  judg- 
ment and  the  meek  shall  be  taught  his  way. 
When  we  have  done  our  part,  then  we  may 
with  confidence  stand  still  and  see  the  salva- 
tion of  God. 

Upon  this  faith  in  God  as  the  eternal  worker 
our  faith  rests.  We  see  and  know  but  little. 
The  future  both  of  ourselves  and  of  society  is 
almost  entirely  hidden  from  us.  By  no  fore- 
sight of  calculation  can  we  penetrate  its  depths. 
That  out  of  these  efforts  of  ours,  however  w^ell 
meant,  a  spiritual  temple  fit  for  the  divine  in- 
dwelling will  rise  depends  on  our  faith  in  God ; 
that  the  multitudinous  strivings  of  man  shall 
lead  to  a  redeemed  society  depends  on  our 
faith  in  the  divine  order  and  guidance  of  the 
world.  And  this  is  our  Christian  faith,  which 
faith  we  have  as  the  great  anchor  to  our  souls ; 
and  in  this  faith  we  do  our  work  and  leave  the 
rest  to  God. 

What  God  would  do  for  a  community  thus 
bent  on  doing  the  will  of  God  and  working 
together  with  him  it  would  be  hard  to  say. 


266  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  social 
changes  that  would  result  if  we  could  all  be- 
gin to  love  God  with  all  our  hearts  and  our 
neighbors  as  ourselves.  And  this  would  indeed 
be  a  long  step  toward  a  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth.  But  there  seems  room  for  think- 
ing of  even  greater  results  than  these.  We 
often  think  of  nature  as  something  fixed  and 
completed,  and  thus  we  fancy  that  no  great 
development  of  humanity  is  possible  upon 
the  earth.  In  fact,  however,  nature  itself  is 
only  a  continuous  process  representing  no  static 
fact  and  barrier  for  God,  but  merely  the  pre- 
sent form  of  his  working.  The  result  is  that 
nature  continually  is  or  becomes  that  which 
God  wills  it  to  be  or  become.  So  far  as  man 
is  concerned  nature  is  the  environment  under 
which  he  holds  his  life,  and  is  by  no  means  in- 
dependent of  what  man  is.  In  the  divine  plan 
nature  is  adjusted  to  man  quite  as  much  as 
man  is  adjusted  to  nature.  Each  is  in  a  way 
the  counterpart  of  the  other,  and  hence  it  is 
permitted  to  say  that  if  human  society  should 
pass  into  higher  spiritual  development  so  that 


OUR  PARTNERSHIP   WITH   GOD  257 

it  could  be  trusted  with  greater  powers  and 
opportunities,  the  environment  would  change 
to  correspond.  The  larger  spiritual  life  would 
have  a  better  and  fairer  physical  setting,  and 
nature  would  become  the  more  pliant  instru- 
ment and  effective  servant  of  humanity.  In 
this  connection  of  course  we  can  say  nothing 
positive,  but  it  is  permitted,  if  not  to  see  visions, 
at  least  to  dream  dreams.  Both  man  and  na- 
ture are  moving  along  parallel  lines  on  an 
open  curve,  the  greater  part  of  which  is 
hidden  from  our  vision  ;  but  in  any  case  both 
nature  and  man  are  moving  under  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Supreme  Being  in  whom  all  things 
live  and  move  and  have  their  existence. 

A  word  in  closing  to  ward  off  a  possible 
misunderstanding.  How  shall  we  work  out  our 
salvation  ?  Not  by  ascetic  retirement  from  the 
claims  of  life,  nor  yet  by  any  formal  religious 
gymnastics,  but  by  faithfully  abiding  in  the 
place  where  we  are,  and  by  faithfully  perform- 
ing the  duties  which  rise  in  our  lives.  We 
should  accept  our  lives  as  God's  gift  and  our 
duties  as  his  will.  We  should  bring  the  thought 


258  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

of  God  into  our  lives  and  seek  to  relate  them  to 
him  and  to  please  him.  Then  the  miracle  of 
the  burning  bush  would  be  repeated  ;  a  thorny 
and  dusty  bush  it  may  seem,  but  bring  God 
into  it  and  it  would  begin  to  kindle  with  di- 
vine meanings  and  to  glow  with  a  divine  pre- 
sence. 


XI 

LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LWING 


XI 


LAW    OF    SUCCESSFUL    LIVING 

"  But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  bis  righteousness ; 
and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  —  Matthew  6  :  33. 

In  the  preceding  sentences  Jesus  explains  the 
Gentile  theory  of  life.  Its  questions  are: 
What  shall  we  eat  ?  What  shall  we  drink  ? 
Wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed?  These, 
our  Lord  admits,  are  important  matters. 
"  Your  Heavenly  Father  kn<|weth  that  ye 
have  need  of  these  things."  But  they  are  not 
the  deepest  and  most  essential  thing.  When 
they  are  not  subordinated  to  something  higher, 
our  life  tends  to  sink  to  an  animal  level,  or  to 
lose  itself  in  petty  vanities  and  unworthy 
externalities.  And  unless  this  tendency  be 
checked,  it  may  go  on,  and  often  does  go  on, 
until  the  result  is  earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish. 
Now  what  our  Saviour  proposes  is  not  to 
do  away  with  the  sense  life,  after  the  manner 
of  ascetics,  but  to  subordinate  it  to  a  higher 


262  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

aim  and  ideal,  wliich  shall  include  the  lower 
while  transcending  it.  Of  course  we  must  eat 
and  drink  and  dress ;  here  the  Gentiles,  an- 
cient and  modern,  are  right.  But  there  is 
more  in  life  than  eating,  drinking,  and  dress- 
ing- :  here  the  Gentiles,  ancient  and  modern, 
are  wrong.  We  must  seek  first  the  kingdom 
of  God ;  that  is,  we  must  make  the  will  of 
God  the  central  thing  and  build  our  lives  on 
and  around  that.  Then  our  lives  will  fall  into 
their  true  order.  Subordinate  things  will  take 
their  proper  subordinate  relations.  There  will 
be  harmony  instead  of  discord  in  our  lives. 
Our  souls  will  be  filled  with  the  peace  which 
arises  from  obedience  to  their  true  law ;  and 
all  things  needful  will  be  added  as  a  natural 
consequence.  No  mechanism  can  run  success- 
fully, unless  the  law  of  its  structure  be  re- 
garded. Without  this,  there  must  be  friction, 
grinding,  jarring,  destruction.  No  organism 
can  be  in  health  unless  its  organic  laws  are 
obeyed.  Without  this,  there  must  be  discom- 
fort, distress,  disease,  and  death.  In  like 
manner,  the  life  of  the  soul  must  be  discordant 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  263 

and  diseased  unless  its  true  law  be  regarded. 
We  have,  then,  in  our  text  a  prescription  for 
successful  livino'.  Seek  first  the  kinjjdom  of 
God  —  that  is,  make  the  will  of  God  the  cen- 
tral thins:  and  subordinate  life  to  it  —  and  all 
will  be  well. 

Now,  this  kingdom  of  God,  what  does  it 
mean  ?  If  the  kingdom  of  God  should  really 
come  among  us,  what  would  the  fact  be  ?  In 
our  earthiness  of  thought  and  lack  of  spirit- 
ual insight,  we  might  easily  fancy  that  some 
great  manifestation  would  be  made  to  the 
senses.  The  New  Jerusalem  might  descend 
out  of  heaven  with  its  walls  of  precious  stones, 
its  pavements  of  gold,  and  its  gates  of  pearl. 
There  would  be  something  which  we  could 
see  ;  and  the  glory  would  shine  afar  off,  and 
the  nations  would  gather  to  behold  the 
sight.  And  thus  the  kingdom  of  God  would 
be  amonjT  men.  But  a  moment's  thouofht  con- 
vinces  us  that  this  would  be  only  a  celestial 
show,  having  no  spiritual  significance  what- 
ever. There  would  be  nothing  moral  or  moral- 
izing in  such  a  performance.  But  the  Lord 


264  THE  ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

looketh  at  the  heart,  and  the  kingdom  of 
God  can  come  with  meaning  only  in  the  heart 
and  life.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you. 
It  is  a  mode  of  living  and  thinking,  not  an 
external  show.  Hence  the  coming  of  the  king- 
dom could  only  mean  the  subordination  of 
our  hearts  and  wills  to  the  will  of  God.  It 
would  not  appear  in  the  heavens  above  nor 
the  earth  beneath.  It  would  not  come  with 
sense  observation  of  any  kind.  It  would  ap- 
pear first  of  all  in  the  surrendered  and  obe- 
dient will,  and  then  in  the  multitudinous  reno- 
vations of  life  and  society  which  that  will 
would  speedily  accomplish.  It  would  not  con- 
sist in  any  other  worldliness,  but  in  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  great  normal  human  life 
with  all  its  interests  to  the  will  of  God. 

But  this  does  not  attract  us,  and  for  two 
reasons :  First,  the  natural  man  discerneth 
not  the  things  of  the  spirit.  They  are  unat- 
tractive to  him.  A  series  of  beatitudes  ac- 
cording to  the  natural  man  would  have  little 
in  common  with  the  beatitudes  pronounced  by 
our  Lord.  Such  a  series  would  run:  Blessed 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  2G5 

are  the  rich.  Blessed  are  they  that  live  in  fine 
houses  and  make  a  great  show.  Blessed  are 
the  well-fed  and  prosperous.  Blessed  are  they 
who  need  not  work.  Blessed  are  they  who 
can  make  great  social  display  and  are  envied 
by  their  neighbors.  Such  are  the  beatitudes  of 
the  Gentiles. 

The  second  reason  why  the  spiritual  con- 
ception of  the  kingdom  of  God  does  not  at- 
tract us  is  that  it  involves  work  on  our  part. 
The  kingdom  will  not  come  of  itself;  we  must 
work  to  bring  it  in.  We  must  gird  ourselves 
for  strenuous  effort  both  in  the  inner  life  of 
the  spirit  and  in  the  outer  life  of  society.  We 
must  ourselves  see  to  it  that  righteousness, 
and  justice,  and  high  ideals  of  life  stand  fast, 
and  bear  rule  and  become  realized  in  us  and 
through  us  and  in  the  community.  But  this 
means  work,  unslumbering,  untiring,  aggres- 
sive work ;  and  tliis  is  unpleasing  to  our  na- 
tive and  acquired  indolence. 

In  further  exposition  of  our  subject,  and 
that  we  may  see  the  importance  of  building 
our  lives  around  the  will  of  God,  we  note  the 


266  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

relation  of  law  in  general  to  the  divine  will. 
But  this  law  is  nothing  externally  imposed 
upon  things,  a  piece  of  outside  legislation ;  it 
is  organized  into  things.  It  expresses  their 
nature,  their  constitution,  the  condition  of 
their  well-being,  and  even  of  their  being  at 
all.  A  crude  fancy  borrowed  from  human  law 
possesses  popular  thought  on  this  matter; 
and  we  think  of  God's  laws  as  arbitrary  rules 
imposed  from  without,  like  the  whims  of  ig- 
norant legislators,  which  but  for  arbitrary 
penalty  might  be  disobeyed  with  impunity. 
But  God's  laws  are  all  organic.  The  laws  of 
the  organism  are  founded  in  the  nature  of  the 
orofanism:  and  if  we  wish  to  live  we  must 
obey  them.  Any  departure  from  them  means 
disturbance,  and  if  persistent  and  complete,  it 
means  death.  God's  laws  are  equally  organic 
in  the  human  realm.  The  rules  for  right  liv- 
ing, both  individual  and  social,  are  founded 
in  the  nature  of  things.  They  result  from 
God's  purpose  in  our  creation  and  the  consti- 
tution which  he  has  given  us.  If  an  organism 
could  become  self-conscious  and  have  insight 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  2G7 

into  the  ends  foreshadowed  in  its  structure,  it 
would  see  that  to  decHne  those  ends  and  de- 
part from  the  laws  thence  resulting,  could 
only  mean  destruction.  And  if  God  has  made 
us  for  himself,  if  he  has  put  the  true  ends  of 
life  in  the  spiritual  realm,  it  is  equally  plain 
that  there  can  be  for  us  no  success,  but  only 
thwarting,  disappointment,  dissatisfaction, fail- 
ure, so  long  as  we  refuse  to  seek  the  ends 
and  obey  the  laws  which  are  founded  in  our 
essential  nature.  To  the  Christian,  therefore, 
"w^ho  finds  the  true  meaning  of  our  life,  not  in 
what  we  have  in  common  with  the  animals, 
but  preeminently  in  that  religious  endowment 
by  which  we  transcend  them,  it  becomes  a 
self-evident  truth  of  spiritual  biology  that 
only  as  we  relate  ourselves  to  the  will  of  God 
can  we  hope  to  attain  to  peace,  spiritual 
health,  and  essential  life.  The  will  of  God, 
then,  has  an  organic  significance  for  our  well- 
being.  We  must  interpret  it  not  as  an  arbi- 
trary rule,  but  biologically  and  as  an  organized 
natural  law.  Only  from  this  point  of  view  do 
we  truly  discern  its  absolute  significance  for  our 


268  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

human  life.  The  diagnosis  of  humanity's  great 
malady  is  simple.  We  are  refusing  our  true 
life,  the  law  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  prescrip- 
tion is  equally  simple  :  We  must  seek  first 
the  kingdom. 

In  our  superficial  and  un spiritual  way  of 
thinking  we  easily  overlook  this  fact,  and  sup- 
pose God's  will,  like  human  statutes,  can  be 
evaded.  But  organic  laws  can  never  be  escaped. 
The  laws  of  health  are  not  made  by  physicians 
or  works  on  hygiene ;  they  are  only  de- 
clared; and  if  all  the  physicians  were  silent, 
and  all  the  works  on  health  were  destroyed, 
the  laws  would  still  remain,  and  whoever 
would  live  must  regard  them.  The  charts  and 
buoys  do  not  make  the  channel,  or  the  rocks 
and  shoals;  they  point  them  out,  and  whoever 
would  enter  the  harbor  must  keep  to  the  chan- 
nel. In  like  manner  neither  the  church  nor 
even  the  Bible  makes  any  law  of  spiritual  life ; 
it  only  declares  or  reveals  the  law  which  exists 
in  the  nature  of  things,  and  which  needs  no 
further  enactment  for  its  authority  or  its  vindi- 
cation. And  if  both  church  and  Bible  were 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  269 

away,  the  supreme  laws  of  life  would  be  as  little 
affected  as  the  channel  into  the  harbor  would  be 
changed  if  we  tore  up  the  charts  and  removed 
the  buoys  and  lighthouses.  Imagine  the  folly 
of  a  shipmaster  who  should  think  himself  free 
to  sail  anywhere  if  he  first  threw  the  charts 
overboard.  So  great  is  his  folly  who  fails  to 
see  that  the  laws  of  life  are  what  they  are, 
whatever  we  may  think  about  them,  and  that 
their  consequences  will  follow  with  the  inevita- 
bility of  gravitation,  whether  we  like  it  or  not. 
And  because  God's  will  is  organic,  it  is 
being  done  in  some  sense  all  the  time.  This 
will  has  a  double  aspect :  It  means  help  and 
furtherance  and  blessing  for  the  obedient, 
and  loss  and  thwarting  and  overthrow  for 
the  disobedient.  It  is  carrying  the  obedient 
safe  into  the  harbor,  and  it  is  hurling  the  dis- 
obedient on  the  rocks  and  over  the  falls  :  and 
in  both  cases  alike  God's  will  is  beingf  done. 
It  is  the  same  law  of  gravitation  that  holds 
the  solid  building  firmly  on  its  base,  and  that 
drags  the  flimsy  structure  down  into  ruin. 
Judgment  may  not  be  immediately  revealed. 


270  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

but  is  going  on  all  the  while,  as  must  be  the 
case  with  all  organic  laws  and  their  conse- 
quences. And  often  we  see  the  judgment 
going  on.  We  see  powers  misused  being  can- 
celled, and  opportunities  slighted  being  with- 
drawn. In  the  growing  dullness  and  dimness 
respecting  higher  things  we  see  the  gathering 
and  deepening  shades  of  the  outer  darkness. 
Men  call  these  things  natural  consequences, 
but  natural  consequences  represent  the  will 
and  ordinance  of  the  Eternal. 

The  absolute  condition,  then,  of  successful 
living  is  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God ; 
that  is,  to  relate  our  lives  to  God  and  his  will, 
to  see  and  value  things  as  he  does,  and  to 
order  our  lives  accordingly.  But  men  are  per- 
petually trying  to  evade  this  condition,  or 
they  are  ignorant  of  it ;  and  the  result  is  the 
confusion,  the  distress,  the  uproar,  the  strife, 
the  sin,  which  are  everywhere  around  us. 

Most  of  us  stop  with  the  Gentiles.  The  su- 
preme questions  are :  What  shall  we  eat  ? 
What  shall  we  drink  ?  And  wherewithal  shall 
we  be  clothed  ?  And  devotion  to  these  things 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  271 

develops  into  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of 
the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  Hfe.  The  first  and  least 
result  is  soul-hunger  and  starvation.  Man  can- 
not  live    by  bread   alone,  however  fine   the 
quality.  He  was  made  for  God,  to  glorify  God, 
and  to  enjoy  him  forever.  His  wants  and  as- 
pirations are  infinite;  and  only  God  can  sat- 
isfy them.  When,  then,  man  seeks  to  live  on 
the  earthly  and  visible  plane,  the  sure  result 
is  a  deep  dissatisfaction  of  soul.  Perhaps  in 
youth,  when  the  deeper  nature  is  unstirred, 
and  when    experience   has  not    revealed    the 
emptiness  of  all  things  earthly,  we  may  find 
satisfaction    in  them.    But  as  life  wears  on, 
and  the  nerves  grow  dull  to  everything  but 
pain,  and  the  inevitable  overturnings  come, 
then  the  years  draw  nigh  when  men  say,  we 
have  no  pleasure  in  them.  Then  men  become 
cynical    and    pessimistic    and  weary  of    life. 
And  no  wonder.  This  is  the  sure  outcome  of 
the  Gentile   theory  of   life.  The  visible  life 
when  unrelated  to  some  divine  meaningf  and 
outcome  is  a   poor  and   mean  thing.  When 
"faith  is  dry"  men  are  but 


272  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

"  flies  of  latter  spring, 
That  lay  their  eggs,  and  sting  and  sing 
And  weave  their  petty  cells  and  die." 

We  need  the  stimulus  and  inspiration  o£  great 
hopes  and  a  divine  outlook  in  order  to  think 
worthily  of  this  life  or  worthily  to  endure  its 
burdens.  But  the  Gentiles  do  not  have  these  ; 
and  thus  tend  to  sink  into  soul-weariness  and 
destitution.  Sometimes  the  lack  of  inspiration 
allows  the  simple  burden  of  physical  toil  to 
fall  with  crushing  weight  upon  us.  Sometimes 
where  the  physical  demands  are  not  great  the 
result  is  insufferable  ennui,  and  the  poor  soul 
is  driven  through  all  manner  of  waste  places, 
seeking  rest  and  finding  none.  But  in  both 
cases  what  is  needed,  and  the  only  thing  that 
can  help,  is  an  alliance  with  the  kingdom  of 
God,  a  thought  and  plan  of  life  which  takes 
hold  on  the  eternal. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  result  of  the  Gen- 
tile plan  of  living.  The  prodigal  not  only 
starves,  but  in  a  great  many  cases  he  finds  him- 
self among  the  swine  before  he  is  through 
with  the  lust  of  the  flesh.  But  aside  from  this 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LiViNG  273 

obscene  result,  which  carries  its  own  condem- 
nation, there  is  another  and  more  subtle 
outcome.  The  further  result  of  the  Gentile 
scheme  of  life  is  to  measure  life  by  unreal 
standards,  thus  producing  a  set  of  fictitious 
values  and  io:norino:  the  true  ones.  Here  the 
lust  of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life  comes  in; 
and  the  way  is  opened  to  boundless  vanity  and 
rivalry  and  envy,  and  heartburning  and  every 
evil  work.  One  great  source  of  trouble  in  the 
world  lies  in  our  false  estimate  of  things,  and 
this  in  turn  roots  in  the  Gentile  view.  The 
world  does  not  care  much  for  substance,  but 
only  for  show.  It  does  not  care  much  even  for 
intellectual  gifts  except  as  they  minister  to  van- 
ity. The  man  is  lost  sight  of  in  his  accidents. 
That  the  soul  should  be  living  in  some  noisome 
back  alley  of  mean  and  petty  thoughts  matters 
not,  if  the  body  lives  in  the  avenue.  That  the 
soul  should  be  poor  and  miserable  and  blind 
and  naked  is  a  thing  of  no  concern,  provided 
the  body  be  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen. 
Dives  may  be  an  utter  pauper  before  God,  but 
we  are  careless  as  to  that,  so  long  as  he  fares 


274  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

sumptuously  every  day.  What  we  call  the 
world,  in  the  religious  sense,  is  built  on  no- 
tions of  this  sort ;  and  out  of  them  sjDring  a 
swarm  of  maxims  which  make  up  the  wisdom 
of  this  world.  Out  of  them,  too,  spring  a  large 
part  of  the  vanities  and  rivalries  and  envy  and 
heartburning  which  curse  us.  We  are  lacking 
in  true  Christian  self-respect.  Men  are  de- 
spised for  being  poor,  they  despise  themselves 
for  being  poor,  and  because  they  are  not  rich 
they  envy  those  that  are.  And  the  rich  in  turn 
often  esteem  themselves  in  terms  of  their 
wealth,  as  if  this  meant  anything  before  God. 
Out  of  this  state  of  things  come  social  prob- 
lems, and  such  questions  as,  "  How  shall  the 
church  reach  the  masses?  "  and  all  manner  of 
confusion  and  manifold  evil  works. 

The  only  way  out  of  this  trouble  is  to  re- 
vise our  conception  of  values,  and  to  put  the 
kingdom  of  God  first.  If  we  do  this  and  look 
at  real  values,  at  values  of  intellect,  heart,  and 
conscience,  and  subordinate  our  doing  and 
thinking  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  there  will  be 
no  trouble  in  solving  all  other  practical  prob- 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  275 

lems  that  may  arise.  And  until  we  do  this  we 
must  worry  along  as  at  present  in  blindness 
and  confusion  and  bitterness  of  soul.  There 
can  be  no  abiding  peace  or  joy,  whether  in  the 
personal  or  in  the  social  life,  until  men  make 
the  kino-dom  of  God  first  and  fundamental. 

This  is  something  which  reformers  espe- 
cially need  to  remember.  They  are  not  over 
successful  in  changing  the  heart ;  indeed, 
they  seldom  report  any  conversions.  Accord- 
ingly, they  devote  themselves  to  whitewashing 
the  sepulchre  and  making  clean  the  outside  of 
the  cup  and  platter.  And  they  have  a  deal  to 
say  about  the  influence  of  environment,  and 
sometimes  they  are  sure  that  a  proper  environ- 
ment would  insure  right  character.  Well,  en- 
vironment is  important,  and  we  should  always 
aim  to  improve  it  so  far  as  we  can ;  but  no 
deep  and  lasting  reformation  of  man  and  so- 
ciety can  be  reached  in  this  way.  Some  hygi- 
enic virtues  and  elementary  decencies  may  be 
thus  secured,  but  the  root  of  the  matter  lies 
deeper.  For  life  tends  to  make  its  own  en- 
vironment, and  the  environment  becomes  an 


276  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

image  of  those  who  are  in  it.  Low  souls,  left 
to  themselves,  will  soon  have  a  corresponding 
environment;  and  a  pure  heart  will   not  be 
long  in  reacting  against  an  impure  environ- 
ment. It  is  said  that  during  the  French  Revo- 
lution a  noble  family  were  driven  out  of  their 
home  and  a  peasant  moved  in  ;  and  in  a  few 
months  he  had  moved  the  pigs,  sty  and  all, 
into  the  castle.  Such  a  nature  will  always  re- 
produce itself  in  its  environment.   One  who  is 
a  sloven  or  slattern  within  will  not  be  long  in 
finding   appropriate    outward    manifestation. 
When  the  slums  are  in  the  people,  the  people 
will  soon  be  in   the  slums.  Hence  to  labor 
with  environment  alone  is  to  doctor  symptoms 
rather  than  diseases ;  and  to  mistake  effects 
for  causes  is  to  seek  to   dry  up  the  stream 
while  the  fountain  is  in  perpetual  flow.  The 
evils  of  humanity,  environment  and  all,  spring 
from  the  failure  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God;  and  if  the  earth  were  all  cleaned  up 
like  a  garden  of  God,  and  men  were  left  un- 
changed, it  would  not  be  long  before  we  were 
back  in  the  old  trouble.  For  these  false  ideas 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  277 

of  life,  these  false  ideals,  the  elevation  of  the 
accidents  to  the  place  of  essentials,  the  devo- 
tion to  the  animal  and  the  vanities,  would 
soon  bring  forth  again  the  results  they  now 
so  prolifically  produce. 

In  the  running  of  machinery  it  is  of  great 
importance  that  everything  should  be  rightly 
centred.  When  a  great  fly-wheel  is  truly  cen- 
tred it  spins  noiselessly  on  its  axle  and  seems 
to  sleep  in  its  most  rapid  motion.  But  let  it 
be  a  little  eccentric  —  that  is,  a  little  off  the 
centre  —  and  it  begins  to  strain  upon  its  bear- 
ings and  may  tear  itself  loose  and  become  an 
instrument  of  destruction.  Our  lives  also  run 
well  only  when  truly  centred  on  the  will  of 
God ;  and  when  they  are  eccentric,  that  is, 
are  centred  on  some  other  and  lower  thing, 
then  come  the  friction,  the  wrenching,  the 
tragedy,  the  destruction,  which  result  from 
eccentric  living. 

There  is  only  one  panacea  for  the  woes  of 
life  and  society,  and  that  is  to  seek  first  the 
kino-dom  of  God.  Our  Lord  announced  this 
law  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  if  he 


278  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

should  return  to  earth  to-morrow  he  could 
announce  no  other.  There  can  be  no  success- 
ful living  on  the  plane  of  animalism.  The  lust 
of  the  flesh  and  the  lust  of  the  eye  and  the 
pride  of  life  can  only  lead  to  vanity  and  envy 
and  strife  and  every  evil  work.  There  can  be 
no  successful  social  work  on  a  plane  or  selfish- 
ness and  injustice  and  mutual  distrust  and  hos- 
tility. On  that  plane  there  can  be  only  social 
disturbance  and  convulsion.  Selfishness  tries 
to  get  and  selfishness  tries  to  keep ;  and  at 
once  the  air  is  murky  with  distrust  and  sus- 
picion, and  wars,  large  and  small,  follow. 
Peace  and  progress  are  possible  only  in  the 
measure  in  which  justice,  good-will,  and  mu- 
tual confidence  obtain  amono^  men.  It  is 
beyond  any  question  that  the  only  sure  and 
effective  way  of  healing  our  social  woes  is  to 
begin  to  love  God  with  all  our  heart  and  our 
neighbors  as  ourselves.  Until  this  is  done  our 
evils  will  remain,  in  spite  of  all  philosophic 
and  philanthropic  efforts  and  exorcisms.  Only 
in  the  doing  of  God's  will  is  our  peace.  And 
the  same  is  equally  true  and  equally  manifest 


LAW   OF   SUCCESSFUL   LIVING  279 

in  the  individual  life.  We  know  perfectly 
well  that  if  we  were  willins:  to  do  God's  will 
and  to  have  it  done,  we  should  be  at  peace ; 
but  we  are  not  willing ;  and  the  storm  con- 
tinues. 

And  to  the  thoughtful  mind  this  would  not 
be  truer  or  even  more  manifest  if  it  were 
written  across  the  sky.  The  will  of  God  is  the 
essential  nature  of  things,  and  with  it  we 
have  to  reckon.  We  cannot  evade  it,  we  can- 
not successfully  resist  it.  The  fates  lead  the 
willing,  the  unwilling  they  drag,  was  a  word 
of  ancient  wisdom  ;  and  in  a  figure  it  expresses 
the  fact.  In  the  leadinof  and  the  dras-Sfina"  alike 
the  nature  of  things,  that  is,  the  will  of  God, 
finds  expression  ;  but  it  is  the  difference  of 
life  or  death  to  us  whether  we  are  led  or 
draofor-ed. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  promise :  "  All  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  Of  course 
this  does  not  mean  that  then  we  should  be 
able  to  get  along  without  work ;  that  would 
pauperize  us.  But  it  means  that  if  life  were 
rightly  centred,  if  the  kingdom  of  God  were 


280  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

made  first  and  fundamental,  there  would  be 
ho  trouble  in  supplying  all  our  subordinate 
needs.  God  has  made  ample  provision  for  them 
in  the  furnishing  of  the  world.  He  knoweth 
that  we  have  need  of  these  things,  and  it  is 
not  his  purpose  that  his  human  family  should 
starve.  If  men  do  starve,  it  is  not  by  divine 
appointment,  but  because  of  human  ignorance 
and  indolence  and  thoughtlessness  ;  for  these 
men  themselves  are  responsible. 

Think  for  a  moment  of  the  immediate  re- 
sult if,  from  to-day  on,  men  put  the  kingdom 
of  God  first  and  began  to  love  God  with  all 
their  hearts  and  their  neighbors  as  themselves. 
The  armies  would  be  disbanded.  The  navies 
would  be  laid  up  forever.  All  the  social  ener- 
gies now  expended  in  repressing  wrong-doing 
would  be  free  for  the  positive  service  of  the 
community.  All  the  wealth  and  effort  now 
spent  in  ministering  to  the  follies  and  vices  of 
men  would  be  free  for  helpful  service.  This 
sum  is  enormous.  A  careful  writer  on  the  cost 
of  crime  has  recently  computed  that  our  taxa- 
tion in  the  United  States  directly  due  to  crime 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  281 

is  $200,000,000.  When  to  this  we  add  the 
positive  damage  done  by  the  criminal  and  the 
negative  hindrance  to  the  community  due  to 
him,  we  have  a  tremendous  total.  But  even 
this  is  a  small  fraction  of  the  sum  spent  in 
ministering^  to  the  follies  and  vices  of  men. 
All  these  would  disappear  if  men  would  seek 
the  kingdom  of  God  ;  and  all  this  money  would 
be  left  free  for  the  upbuilding  of  men.  With 
the  vanishing  of  these  follies  and  vices  there 
would  be  a  corresponding  vanishing  of  disease 
and  increase  of  productive  efficiency.  This 
together  with  universal  industry  would  soon 
make  the  race  rich  enouo-h  to  furnish  the 
conditions  of  a  human  existence  to  all  its  mem- 
bers. Under  these  conditions  knowledge  would 
greatly  flourish.  Man's  control  over  nature 
would  be  indefinitely  extended,  and  disease 
and  pain  would  be  correspondingly  eliminated. 
Nature  would  be  subordinated  to  human  ser- 
vice ;  and  man,  freed  from  breaking  drudgery, 
would  have  time  and  leisure  for  development 
in  the  upper  ranges  of  his  nature.  Art  and 
the  arts  would  flourish.  The  potentialities  of 


282  THE   ESSENCE   OF   RELIGION 

beauty  with  which  the  earth  is  filled  would  be 
summoned  forth,  and  the  earth  would  become 
a  garden  of  the  Lord. 

In  the  social  realm  the  results  would  be  still 
more  blessed.  With  universal  good-will  there 
would  be  universal  peace.  If  differences  arose, 
they  would  be  easily  adjusted,  because  every 
one  would  love  his  neiofhbor  as  himself.  All 
envy,  wrath,  malice,  evil-speaking,  and  evil- 
thinking  would  pass  away.  All  vanity  and 
contempt  and  superciliousness  and  assumption, 
prolific  sources  of  sorrow,  would  also  disap- 
pear. Inequalities  of  fortune  or  faculty  would 
produce  no  heartburnings ;  for  the  strong 
would  delight  to  serve  and  bear  the  burdens 
of  the  weak.  In  the  thought  of  a  common  di- 
vine fatherhood  and  human  brotherhood  all 
differences  would  vanish.  The  ills  that  are  in- 
herent in  our  earthly  lot  would  be  lightened 
by  sympathy,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  shared. 
Poverty,  if  it  existed  at  all,  would  never  be 
allowed  to  become  crushing  ;  as  it  would  never 
be  the  outcome  of  vice  and  folly.  Indeed, 
honest  poverty  would  suffer  very  little  as  it  is, 


LAW   OF   SUCCESSFUL   LIVING  283 

if  it  were  not  for  knavish  and  vicious  pauper- 
ism which  hardens  the  heart  of  charity  and 
dries  up  the  springs  of  benevolence.  But  if 
the  kingdom  had  come  in  all  hearts,  this  would 
not  be  the  case,  and  there  would  be  no  want 
unrelieved  which  human  power  could  reach. 
And  in  the  universal  atmosphere  of  sincerity 
and  good-will  how  would  friendship  flourish 
and  all  souls  expand  in  joyous  fellowship ! 

Finally  note  the  result  in  the  personal  life.  ■ 
We  should  know  and  realize  the  truth  of  God, 
and  that  truth  would  make  us  free  —  free  from 
sham,  from  falsehood,  from  delusions,  and  the 
fear  of  death.  Life  would  be  seen  in  its  true 
character  and  divine  significance,  and,  living 
or  dying,  we  should  be  his.  The  unrest,  the 
discontent,  the  fever,  would  vanish  as  we 
realized  that  we  are  in  God's  world  and  must 
set  about  our  Father's  business.  It  all  would 
follow  with  the  certainty  and  inevitability  of 
natural  law. 

If  some  lake,  set  in  the  midst  of  hills  and 
forests  but  swept  with  gales,  should  become 
conscious   of  itself,    it  might  well  miss  the 


284  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

knowledge  of  anything  but  its  own  wind- 
tossed  and  turbid  waters.  But  let  the  gales 
die  away,  and  the  hills  and  heavens  above 
will  be  perfectly  mirrored  in  the  depths  be- 
low. The  application  is  evident.  When  the 
soul  is  beaten  upon  by  gusts  of  passion  and 
low  ambition,  it  finds  no  trace  of  anything 
divine  in  itself  or  anything  else.  But  let  it 
be  still  and  lift  its  thoughts  heavenward,  and 
it  will  soon  give  back  the  image  of  the  upper 
sky. 

Thus  I  have  sought  to  unfold  the  supreme 
condition  of  successful  living.  Thus  far  I 
have  dwelt  upon  it  under  the  sterner  aspect  of 
law  and  duty.  There  it  stands,  immovable  as 
the  mountains,  inevitable  and  inexorable  as 
gravitation.  Let  me  now,  in  closing,  urge  it 
upon  you  in  the  higher  form  of  a  glorious 
privilege.  It  is  necessary  for  the  spiritually 
dull  that  they  feel  the  compulsion  and  menace 
of  the  law ;  but  for  nobler  souls  that  is  alto- 
gether too  low  a  key.  The  Kingdom  of  God 
—  how  glorious  in  its  membership  !  The  first- 
born sons  of  light,  the  great  intelligences  fair 


LAW  OF  SUCCESSFUL  LIVING  285 

who  range  above  our  mortal  state,  the  glorious 
company  of  the  apostles,  the  goodly  fellow- 
ship of  the  prophets,  the  noble  army  of  mar- 
tyrs, the  great  multitude  of  the  holy  dead,  the 
lovers  of  God  and  righteousness  in  all  worlds 
—  these  are  the  members,  and  this  the  glori- 
ous fellowship,  bound  together  in  the  common 
love  of  a  common  Lord.  The  Kingdom  of 
God,  how  glorious  also  in  its  aim  !  For  this  is 
nothinof  less  than  the  full  realization  of  the 
perfect  will  of  the  perfect  God,  so  that  the 
human  may  become  one  with  the  divine.  In 
that  large  and  abundant  life,  full  and  com- 
plete, we  shall  hve,  yet  not  we,  but  Christ 
shall  live  in  us.  Then  humanity  shall  be  the 
fit  organ  for  the  expression  of  God ;  and  the 
divine  life  shall  flow  througli  us  and  all  our 
thoughts  and  works,  and  be  the  life  of  our  life. 

"  0  Love,  that  wilt  not  let  us  go, 
We  yield  our  being  up  to  Thee ! 
We  give  Thee  back  the  life  we  owe, 
That  in  Thy  ocean  depths  its  flow 
May  richer,  fuller  be." 

Now  all  thino^s  else  fade  and  vanish  in  com- 


286  THE  ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

parison.  How  poor  and  paltry  the  aim  and 
interests  of  the  Gentiles !  Now  are  we  the 
children  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be,  but  when  he  shall  appear 
we  shall  be  like  him,  for  we  shall  see  him  as 
he  is. 


XII 

THE  MIRACLE   OF  THE   RESURRECTION 


XII 

THE    MIRACLE    OF  THE    RESURRECTION 

If  we  heard  that  a  man  had  died  in  a  neigh- 
boring town  and  had  risen  from  the  dead  and 
had  ascended  into  heaven,  we  should  not  pay 
any  attention  to  it.  We  should  not  believe 
the  report.  We  should  not  even  disbelieve  it. 
We  should  ignore  it  and  should  feel  some- 
what impatient  if  some  one  asked  us  to  con- 
sider the  case.  Yet  the  Christian  church  still 
repeats  its  creed  concerning  Jesus.  He  suf- 
fered under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified, 
dead,  and  buried.  He  rose  again  from  the 
dead  and  ascended  into  heaven.  Now  why  do 
we  treat  these  cases  differently  ?  Reflection 
on  this  question  soon  convinces  us  that  the 
discussion  of  this  subject  has  been  rather  con- 
fused by  a  piecemeal  treatment.  Both  friends 
and  foes  have  been  equally  to  blame.  The 
friends  have  largely  treated  of  Christianity 
and  miracles,  and  have  viewed  the  latter  as 


290  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

the  evidence  for  the  former,  and  have  taken 
them  as  external  supports  rather  than  essential 
parts  of  the  system.  The  foes  have  done  the 
same  thing.  They  have  asked  whether  this  or 
that  miracle  be  credible,  and  when  it  is  taken 
in  isolation  it  is  easy  to  show  that  the  mir- 
acle is  not  credible.  Then  comes  the  familiar 
debate  about  miracles  and  evidence  which 
tends  to  nothinor  but  confusion.  The  next 
thing  is  the  query,  whether  the  doctrine  proves 
the  miracle  or  the  miracle  proves  the  doctrine. 
Soon  it  is  concluded  that  the  doctrine  proves 
the  miracle,  so  that  the  doctrine  is  far  more 
acceptable  without  the  miracle  than  with  it. 
Finally  then  the  miracle  is  to  be  set  aside  as 
a  burden  too  grievous  to  be  borne,  and  thus 
we  become  rational  Christians. 

This  sort  of  thing  is  familiar  to  all  prac- 
ticed readers,  but  not  all  of  us  see  through  it. 
The  miracles  of  Christianity  cannot  be  dis- 
cussed piecemeal,  but  only  as  parts  of  a  system. 
Christianity  itself  is  essentially  supernatural 
in  its  idea,  and  in  that  sense  miraculous.  That 
is,  Christianity  affirms   an   ever-living,   ever- 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  RESURRECTION    291 

workino-  God,  in  whom  we  live  and  have  our 
being  and  who  profoundly  cares  for  his  chil- 
dren and  is  seeking  to  develop  them  into  his 
spiritual  likeness.  In  doing  this  work  he  main- 
tains the  familiar  order  of  nature  on  which  we 
all  depend.  He  also  works  through  the  mind 
and  society,  through  education  and  history. 
In  addition  he  has  sent  prophets  and  teachers 
to  reveal  his  will  and  to  guide  us  into  truth. 
Finally,  in  the  fullness  of  time  he  sent  his  Son 
to  make  the  perfect  revelation  of  the  Father, 
and  to  present  the  highest  assurance  of  his 
will  and  presence,  and  to  furnish  the  highest 
inspiration  to  love  and  serve  him.  This  con- 
ception, as  we  have  said,  is  essentially  mir- 
aculous, and  it  is  little  less  than  pathetic  that 
any  one  who  accepts  this  thought  of  a  self- 
revealing  God  and  the  stupendous  miracle  of 
the  incarnation  of  the  divine  Son  should  hag- 
gle over  details  of  miracles,  as  if  anything  de- 
pended on  them.  It  is  equally  incredible,  apart 
from  experience,  that  any  opponent  of  Chris- 
tianity should  think  anything  gained  by  cavils 
at  the  withered  fig-tree,  or  the  fish  with  the 


292  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

coin  in  its  mouth,  while  the  fundamental 
Christian  thought  is  left  untouched.  Our  gen- 
eral conclusion  on  this  subject  does  not  depend 
on  argument  alone  or  chiefly,  but  also  and 
more  fundamentally  on  our  world  view  and 
our  moral  and  religious  sympathies  and  tend- 
encies. If  we  are  essentially  irreligious  and 
have  no  sympathy  with  humanity's  search 
after  God,  or  if  we  hold  a  naturalistic  philo- 
sophy, then  there  is  no  use  in  talking  about  the 
resurrection,  or  even  about  religion.  Equally 
if  we  say  that  God,  if  there  be  any,  is  su- 
premely concerned  to  keep  \mv^  a  constant 
quantity  at  all  hazards,  and  in  comparison  has 
little  or  no  interest  with  spiritualized  human- 
ity, there  is  no  question  of  the  resurrection. 
But  if  we  believe  that  our  race  is  and  always 
has  been  in  the  hands  of  God,  who  is  leading 
us  on  toward  himself,  then  our  minds  are  not 
closed  in  advance  against  the  presence  of  the 
living  God  in  history  and  in  the  mind  of  man, 
and  that  too  in  such  a  way  that  we  may  dis- 
cern his  presence.  The  real  debate  here  is  not 
the  mere  question  of  miracle,  but  it  is  the  strife 


THE   MIRACLE   OF  THE   RESURRECTION     293 

of  two  views  of  life  and  the  world,  the  higher 
spiritual  view,  and  the  lower  material  view. 

Of  course,  neither  of  these  views  can  ever 
become  a  matter  of  strict  demonstration  or 
scientific  evidence.  The  lower  view  is  based 
on  certain  crude  dogmatisms  which  cannot  be 
established  in  any  scientific  or  philosophic 
way,  but  which  in  a  fashion  appeal  to  the 
natural  man  as  level  to  his  understanding:. 
Being  of  the  earth  earthy,  he  is  satisfied  with 
an  earthly  view  of  things.  Equally  the  higher 
spiritual  view  admits  of  no  demonstration. 
The  evidence  must  be  of  a  kind  that  roots  in 
life  and  will  have  something  of  life's  complex- 
ity. All  that  is  possible,  then,  for  the  Chris- 
tian is  to  form  an  argument  that  will  be  con- 
sistent with  itself  and  fit  into  our  general 
scheme  of  Christian  thought.  Then  it  will  be 
the  duty  of  each  one  to  decide  for  himself 
between  the  conflicting  views,  but  in  any  case 
we  must  not  expect  to  construct  an  argument 
that  will  compel  belief  on  the  part  of  unwill- 
injT  minds.  This  is  not  the  method  of  God's 
dealiuof  with  us.   There  is  no  aro-ument  in 


294  THE   ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

moral  matters  that  forces  belief,  and  it  is  not 
desirable  that  there  should  be.  It  must  not  be 
thought,  however,  that  faith  in  the  Christian 
view  is  any  more  difficult  now  than  it  has 
been  in  the  past.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  at 
least  as  possible  to-day  as  it  ever  was.  In  this 
age,  as  in  all  ages,  it  has  been  a  matter  of 
faith  and  not  of  demonstration.  Our  conclu- 
sion is  the  complex  outcome  of  life,  and  by 
no  means  the  colorless  result  of  a  syllogism  or 
historical  inquiry.  It  is  only  the  half-educated 
who  fancy  that  science  has  made  our  faith  in 
this  matter  more  difficult.  Some  persons  who 
have  dwelt  too  long  in.  the  cave  of  dogmatic 
naturalism,  and  who  are  somewhat  in  the  hear- 
say and  uncritical  stage  of  intellect,  have  been 
told  that  belief  is  unusually  difficult  to-day. 
It  seems  sufficient  to  tell  such  persons  in  reply 
that  they  have  been  misinformed. 

Technical  evidences  of  Christianity  of  the 
traditional  type  are  not  particularly  edifying. 
Christianity  is  its  own  best  evidence.  Any 
great  consistent  system  which  fits  into  life  and 
which  upholds  and   inspires  life   is   its  own 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  RESURRECTION    295 

proof.  The  Christian  system,  with  its  history 
and  its  present  position  at  the  head  of  all  the 
influences  that  make  for  human  uplift,  is 
Christianity's  great  evidence.  It  roots  now 
and  always  in  the  divine,  and  its  miracles 
are  not  an  outside  proof,  but  a  part  of  the 
revelation  itself.  God  was  not  revealing  himself 
exclusively  to  Sadducees,  nor  to  scientists, 
but  to  men  as  they  have  lived  and  live,  and 
if  we  admit  the  general  Christian  conception, 
its  miracles  are  perfectly  natural.  They  are 
what  we  should  expect.  How  should  this  glori- 
ous revelation  of  God  be  known  except  by 
manifestations  which  insure  that  the  fact  and 
its  meaning  should  not  be  lost? 

Now  from  this  point  of  view  the  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension  are  just  what  was  needed 
to  make  clear  what  the  great  revealing  move- 
ment that  culminated  in  the  life  of  Christ 
meant.  The  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us,  and  we  beheld  his  glory  as  of  the 
Only  Begotten  of  the  Father.  We  are  prepared 
to  believe  anything  that  fits  into  this  magni- 
ficent conception.  And  what  could  be  more 


296  THE  ESSENCE  OF  RELIGION 

fitting  than  that  this  divine  Son,  after  having 
revealed  the  Father  and  been  faithful  unto 
death,  should  triumph  over  death  and  return 
to  his  Father  again?  How  simply  and  worthily 
it  is  all  told.  He  arose  from  the  dead,  showed 
himself  to  his  disciples,  talked  with  them  of 
the  future  of  his  kingdom,  commanded  them 
to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  his  gospel, 
promised  to  be  with  them  always,  and  then, 
while  bestowing  blessing  upon  them,  vanished 
out  of  their  sisfht.  What  else  could  have  been 
done  on  the  Christian  theory  ?  And  if  we 
suppose  this  to  have  happened,  it  is  har- 
monious with  the  general  thought ;  and  how- 
ever much  it  may  scandalize  the  Sadducean 
critic,  it  seems  to  have  been  the  thing  which 
the  disciples  needed  and  which  the  church 
has  needed  ever  since  to  complete  their  faith 
in  their  Lord. 

Of  course,  as  said,  this  does  not  admit  of 
demonstration  that  would  force  belief  upon 
unwilling  minds,  and  yet,  so  far  as  historical 
inquiry  can  go,  the  fact  seems  to  be  as  well 
established  as  could  be  expected  or  even  de- 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE   RESURRECTION    297 

sired.  The  apostles  at  the  beginning  were 
preaching  Jesus  and  the  resurrection,  and  this 
was  the  general  faith  of  the  church  from  the 
start.  Something  must  have  happened  to 
change  the  band  of  fleeing  disciples  into  these 
world-defiers  and  world-conquerors  which 
they  so  soon  become.  If  there  was  no  fact 
behind  it  all,  whence  did  this  new  conviction 
and  mighty  courage  come  ?  It  is  quite  idle  to 
talk  of  vague  possibilities  of  evolution  and  all 
that,  for  these  things  were  not  done  in  a 
corner,  and  too  much  has  come  from  them 
to  suppose  the  faith  fictitious.  If  nothing  had 
resulted,  if  there  had  been  only  a  momentary 
flicker  of  enthusiasm,  we  might  well  believe 
that  it  was  all  a  mistake  ;  but  when  the  Chris- 
tian church  sprang  out  of  it  and  still  endures 
through  faith  in  it,  we  certainly  need  not  be 
ashamed  of  our  faith  in  the  face  of  anything 
that  science  or  historical  criticism  may  say. 
Some  will  call  it  the  Christian  superstition. 
We  call  it  the  Christian  faith.  To  some  it  is 
still  a  stumbling-block  and  foolishness,  to 
others  it  is  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom 


298  THE  ESSENCE   OF  RELIGION 

of   God.    As   between   these   views   decision 
must  be  made  by  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
and  the  court  has  been  in  session  for  nearly 
two  thousand  years.  The  anti-religious  views 
have  lived  along  in  the  lower  ranges  of  human 
thought  and  life,  and  they  have  been  equally 
the  enemies  of    humanity,  its   hopes,  its  in- 
spirations, and  its  aspirations.  And  all  the  re- 
ligious views  that,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
have  failed  to  believe  in  Jesus  and  the  resur- 
rection have  likewise  been  with  us  for  many 
centuries,  and  they  maintain  only  a  precarious 
existence.    These  views  have  not  been  great 
enough  to  command  the  faith  or  stir  the  hearts 
of  men.  In  this  fact  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
as  the  supreme  court  for  considering  the  mat- 
ter, hands  down  a  final  decision.  It  only  re- 
mains that  the  church  shall  keep  strenuously 
at  work  proclaiming  the  Gospel,  the  good  news 
of    God,  the  Son  who  came  to  show  us  the 
Father  and  to  lead  us  to  him,  and  who,  when 
his  revealing  work  was  done,  left  the  visible 
scene  to  be  the  eternal  head  of  his  church  and 
the  Redeemer  of  all  them  that  call  upon  him. 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


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